


Wolves At The Door

by SunlightOnTheWater



Series: The Redemption Arc [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angel Dean Winchester, Angel Sam Winchester, Chuck as God, Croatoan Virus, Gen, Ghost Anna, Ghost Kali, Minor Character Death, Nephilim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-01-20 18:18:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 43,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1520729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunlightOnTheWater/pseuds/SunlightOnTheWater
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After centuries being locked up in Purgatory the Leviathans have been set free to seek their revenge against God and his children. Set on the destruction, the monsters are determined to track down the Novak brothers, rumored to be the only hunters that could possibly stop them. And once they find out the Gabriel and Castiel are truly angels the game will only get worse. God may be back and the apocalypse may be over but time is running out for His children to save the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the last large story in this series (though not the last piece to be added to it because I have plenty more little chunks of backstory and timestamps to add to it). At this point I have no idea how long it will end up being but I have thirteen chapters written so far and am nowhere near finished with it. Updates will be, a least at this point, on Mondays and Fridays still. Enjoy!

_"Tick tock goes the clock, and all the years they fly. Tick tock and all too soon, You and I must die. Tick tock goes the clock, we laughed at fate and mourned her. Tick tock goes the clock, even for the Doctor."- Night Terrors Nursery Rhyme, Doctor Who_

The Roadhouse was Ellen Harvelle's second child. The first happened when naïve eighteen year old Ellen Peterson married twenty-one year old William Harvelle. She and Bill had their first and only child, Joanna Beth in 1985. Six years later Bill died on a hunt with Jimmy Novak. Novak had been devastated and Ellen had made the mistake of blaming him just as much as he was blaming himself. She never saw him again. She did meet his sons, Gabriel and Castiel, when they were searching for their father. She hadn't seen them since but she'd heard all kinds of rumors about the apocalypse and how the Novak boys were somehow stuck in the middle of it all.

"Hey Mom," Jo called cheerfully as she entered the bar carrying a paper bag of groceries in her arms. "We're back!" Ash followed behind her, carrying another bag. The two of them had gone out to replenish the Roadhouse's supplies an hour ago at Ellen's request. 

"Did you get everything?" she asked and Jo nodded, blonde curls bouncing.

"Yup," she chirped cheerfully. "We got everything on your list." Ellen shook her head as she watched her daughter bounce out of the bar to grab another bag from the car.

"Don't worry Mrs. H," Ash reassured her. "We did grab everything you asked for. Even remembered the milk."

"Thank you Ash," Ellen said with a smile. "I'm sure you and Jo did just fine." Ash had come to live with them after he'd been kicked out of MIT for illegal hacking. He'd gotten off lightly, with just a warning, but he hadn't wanted to go back the next semester to test his luck. Now he helped hunters by tracking down cases, possible connections, and generally being technologically helpful. The hunters liked him well enough, though they thought he was odd which was saying something considering the kind of people who became hunters.

An hour later the groceries were settled and hunters were filtering in, ordering drinks and food. Ellen greeted them cheerfully from behind the bar as Jo bustled between booths and Ash, who was a remarkably good cook, was whipping up the food. That was when it walked in. For a moment she could have sworn that it oozed in. Then it stepped into the light and she was looking at a middle aged man with black veins creeping out of the collar of his shirt. It approached the bar as the rest of the Roadhouse feel silent in its wake. It looked human enough but Ellen wasn't fooled. This was some kind of monster. "Can I help you?" she asked sharply, hand reaching for the shotgun under the bar. 

The creature smiled at her then, displaying needle like teeth. "Ellen Harvelle?" it asked, voice rough and raspy.

"Who wants to know?" Ellen snapped and the things smiled at her again.

"I'm looking for the Novak brothers. Rumor has it you might know where they are."

"Well I don't," Ellen said, voice like ice. "And even if I did know where they were I wouldn't tell you." The creature studied her, leaning on his elbows across the bar.

"Maybe you won't," it replied softly. "But sooner or later you'll have to pick a side and if you pick theirs I will personally make sure you see everything you love destroyed before I kill you." That said the creature turned and oozed out of the bar. The instant it was gone Ellen beckoned and frozen Jo over to her.

"Be a dear and watch the bar," she told her daughter. "I need to make a phone call." A pale faced Jo took Ellen's position, hand on the shotgun, and Ellen headed for the back room.

"What was that all about Mrs. H?" Ash asked from the kitchen.

"I don't know," Ellen replied. "I'm going to call Bobby and see if he knows what's going on?" Ash nodded and turned back to his cooking, none too concerned with current happenings if he wasn't in immediate danger. Ellen headed through the kitchen to the upstairs, grabbing the nearest phone and dialing.

"Singer's Salvage," a voice answered on the third ring.

"Hey Bobby, it's Ellen," she said. "I have a question for you."

"Shoot," Singer told her.

"I just had some kind of thing with black veins come into my bar and ask about the Novaks," she told the other hunter. "I told it I didn't know anything but I have a feeling it will be coming back, maybe with reinforcements. Do you know what's going on?"

"No," Bobby replied, sounding mildly worried. "I haven't heard from either of them for a while. I'll see if I can track them down and get some information for you." He hesitated a moment and then added, "Stay safe Ellen."

"You too," she replied and hung up the phone. Then she took a deep breath, fixed a smile on her face, and went back downstairs to pretend that nothing unusual had happened.


	2. Called to Earth

Bobby Singer was worried. It wasn't often that Ellen Harvelle called about something she wasn't sure or didn't have a handle on. More often than not she simply called to make sure he was still alive and kicking. It was even more worrisome was the fact that she was calling about something that was after the Novak brothers. Bobby knew for sure that Gabriel and Castiel Novak were really angels and judging by the fact that Ellen had no idea what the creature was it probably also knew that Gabriel and Castiel were angels. That was a worrying thought; that there was something out there hunting angels. "Balls," he muttered, standing and pacing back and forth in his kitchen. There was no other option. He would have to pray to one of the Novak's to warn them. 

_Castiel_ , he decided silently. At least Cas wasn't likely to drive him insane by popping up at random times and emptying out his liquor stash. "Castiel who art in Heaven," Bobby began and then hesitated, scratching awkwardly through his baseball cap for a moment before continuing. "There's something down here trying to track you down and from what Ellen told me it isn't anything good so if you wouldn't mind getting your ass down here…"

"I am here," Cas announced suddenly and Bobby swore before turning to glare at the angel.

"Don't just do that ya idjit," he growled. "Make some noise or something." He relented when Castiel looked contrite. "Sorry kid," he said sheepishly and Castiel shrugged awkwardly.

"You said that some _thing_ was looking for Gabriel and I?" the angel prodded.

"Ellen didn't know what it was," Bobby informed him. "She only claimed that it had black veins."

"Black veins?" Castiel asked, blue eyes intense.

"Yes boy, are you deaf or something?"

"My hearing is completely adequate," Castiel replied stiffly but he seemed worried. "Did she say anything else? Any other descriptors?"

"No," Bobby told him. "Why don't you give her a call and you can ask her any questions your little heart desires?" Castiel scowled at the older man but was already pulling a cell phone out of his pocket to call her.

\---

Jo was the one who answered the phone. Ellen was in the middle of helping Ash clean up the bar when the phone rang and her blonde haired daughter was the nearest to it. "Hello? Oh hi Cas," Ellen heard Jo chirp and she was already crossing the floor to hold her hand out for the phone. Jo sighed and pouted but she also handed over the phone.

"Castiel Novak?" Ellen asked sharply.

"Yes Mrs. Harvelle," Castiel replied respectfully.

"Did Bobby pass on my message?"

"About the black veined thing? Yes ma'am. I just wondered if you had any other descriptions of it."

Ellen considered what was being asked of her for a moment before replying. "It didn't really walk. It, this is going to sound silly by it _oozed_."

"I believe you," Castiel replied calmly. "If it returns please call Bobby immediately. He knows how to get into contact with Gabriel and I."

"Castiel what is going on?" Ellen demanded, not willing to be ordered around by a man half her age who hadn't hunted nearly as long as she had. It was true that the Novaks got into more supernatural trouble than hundreds of other hunters combined but they also had a tendency to attempt to keep to themselves things that got others killed.

"I'm not certain yet," Castiel told her in an almost fearful tone that chilled her to the bone. "But I promise as soon as I know how you can protect yourself I will let you know." Then he hung up before she could get in a word of protest.

\---

Castiel was afraid. There were creatures on Earth looking for he and Gabriel, creatures that Castiel had never heard of before. Creatures that could very well know that he and Gabriel were truly angels. He returned to Heaven almost instantly after learning everything Ellen could tell him, knowing he had to warn his brother of what was coming. "Castiel? Is something wrong?"

"Gadreel may not be our only problem," Castiel informed a concerned looking Samael. After Lucifer's unexpected surrender he and a Samael who was newly restored to everything he had once been had returned to Heaven. The reunion had been sweet, only marred by the knowledge that somewhere the snake from the garden was wandering free, just waiting to have his revenge. "Something came to Ellen Harvelle's bar looking for Gabriel and I."

"Some _thing_?"

"Ellen wasn't sure what it was," Castiel said in response to the pointed question. "Just that it had black veins and it oozed instead of walking." Sam cocked his head slightly, seeming just as confused as Castiel felt. "Any ideas?"

"None," the youngest archangel replied. "I mean the thing about black veins is unusual but I'm not remembering anything specific at the moment."

"What are we talking about?" a cheerful voice chirped and Castiel sensed more than saw Sam rolling his eyes.

"Your imminent death," the archangel informed Gabriel dryly, black wings fluttering slightly in amused annoyance.

"Oh really? By who?"

"We're not sure," Sam shot back with a smirk. "We haven't found out yet."

"Be sure to let me know when you find out," Gabriel replied.

"Will you two take this seriously?" Castiel pleaded frantically. Something about his tone caught their attentions and they sobered instantly. "Ellen Harvelle claimed there was some kind of creature was looking for you and I and it wasn't something anyone I've talked to recognized."

"Description," Gabriel ordered instantly.

"Humanoid, black veins, and Ellen said for a minute there she could have sworn it oozed instead of walking."

"Ok Cassie," the Messenger said calmly. "Sammy and I are going to drag Luce, Mikey, and Raph out of whatever conference their currently involved in. Meanwhile you are going to stay calm, track down Balthazar and Dumah, and the three of you will wait for us here. Understand?"

"Yeah," Castiel agreed, taking a deep breath.

"Good," Gabriel replied with a reassuring smile. "Come on Sam. Let's go find our big brothers."


	3. A Storm Brewing

Being back in Heaven was strange. Lucifer had been away from home for so long that it felt like he was a stranger visiting a foreign land. That was why he had retreated into the Garden, hoping to find some kind of peace. "Luce?" a voice called and he felt a smile slip on to his face. "Where are you? I was told you were here."

"No doubt by Joshua," Lucifer replied wryly, smiling widely when his Samael slipped around the thick trunk of a weeping willow.

"Who else?" his younger brother questioned but his expression was worried.

"What's wrong?" Lucifer questioned, closing the distance between them in two steps.

"We're gathering," Sam said simply. "Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael will meet us here." He paused a moment and then added, "Gabriel thought you would appreciate a heads up before we all ambushed you."

"He was right," Lucifer replied and Sam nodded, shifting nervously. "Sam, what's wrong?"

"I don't know," the younger archangel admitted. "But whatever it is, it has Gabe worried and that's bothering me." Lucifer reached out to squeeze Sam's shoulder, trying to calm that younger angel.

"Whatever it is, we'll take care of it. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good," Lucifer replied with a grin. "Now sit. You're making me feel short." Sam grinned and obeyed. Lucifer settled next to him and the two of them stared out at the crystalline waters of a pond a few feet away. They had a moment to enjoy the silence before Gabriel arrived with his entourage. It would be the only silence they had for some time.

\---

Madison Keller was not having a good day. First one of the other office assistants had spilled coffee all over her new blouse, then her boyfriend had called and said he'd been late coming to pick her up for her date, and now, as she paced back in forth in her new black dress, this _thing_ had simply kicked her door into splinters. Madison had whirled the instant the door had shattered, batting wood out of her dark recently curled hair and scowling at the figure standing in her doorway. Dark veins creeping their way up toward its face caught her attention and she shuddered slightly. The creature grinned and Madison was given the impression that it was used to having jagged teeth instead of the flatter human ones used for crushing and mushing their food. It was a terrifying thought.

"Somebody is going to have to pay for that," she said at last, motioning weakly to what had once been her door. "And it had better not be me."

"I don't think that will be a problem," the creature replied smoothly. Madison took a step back as the creature oozed forward, reaching out a hand toward her.

"Oh no you don't," she snarled, the werewolf in her suddenly rising defensively toward the surface. "Get out of my home."

\---

It had taken a while but Pamela Barnes was finally used to being blind. Her psychic abilities helped, allowing her to know where things were around her home and who exactly was standing at her door, but it was still disorienting to know something was there and not to be able to see exactly what it was. Then there were the vision. Psychic visions weren't really Pamela's thing but occasionally they happened. Her blindness by angel had caused them to flare up more often, normally when she was in the middle of walking somewhere.

This one was more worrying than any of the others. This one was of a dark haired girl with eyes who had turned gold being dragged off unconscious by something that was more black goo than human, despite its exterior looks. She shuddered, the aftermath of the vision still washing through her like a particularly nasty taste, and stumbled to the phone, fingers fumbling to dial Bobby Singer's number. Something was going on and Pamela didn't like it one bit.

\---

"It was a Leviathan." Lucifer's voice was cold and sure the instant Gabriel finished repeating the description Castiel had been given. "Has to be."

"Why are they looking for Gabe and Cas?" Sam pressed, mind already working on the problem so as to avoid descending into complete panic. The last time he'd had to face a Leviathan the thing had almost destroyed him.

"We were hunters for a while," Gabriel said with a shrug. "Perhaps they are simply trying to eliminate anyone who could stop you."

"We're forgetting someone," Raphael spoke up suddenly. "Gadreel."

"You are suggesting that he released the Leviathans from Purgatory?" Michael asked and Raphael nodded.

"It is a logical conclusion," the healer continued. "Gadreel has a grudge against Heaven and the best way to do that, aside from mimicking Lucifer's rebellion, would be to allow the Leviathans to wreak havoc upon the world out father has created. In his mind it would be what would hurt our father the most."

"That still doesn't explain why they're searching out Gabriel and Castiel specifically," Lucifer pointed out. "But it does fit Gadreel. He's too proud to mimic anyone but he isn't the type to do his own dirty work either."

"How are we going to return them to their cage?" Sam asked worriedly. "The Leviathans were created before any of us."

"That doesn't mean anything," Gabriel replied blithely and received four disbelieving looks. "Ok, it doesn't mean much."

"We will have to work together," Michael said. "Alone they could destroy us but together we may have a chance."

"So where do we start?" Lucifer drawled, standing and pulling Sam to his feet.

"Gabriel, you said that Castiel brought the news from a friend of yours?" 

"Yes," Gabriel answered. "What of it?"

"We need to go see this friend and learn what we can from him."

"Ok," Gabriel agreed. "But I had Castiel gather Balthazar and Dumah and I doubt we're going to be able to leave without them." Lucifer chuckled at that and Raphael looked vaguely bemused.

"Fuck you," Michael said mildly but he seemed amused as well. Sam just shook his head with a slight smirk.

"Are we going to hang around trading insults or are we going to get answers?" Sam asked, wings spreading. Their father had repaired the damage done to them by Lucifer and Hell and they were as magnificent and powerful as before. The sight sent a bolt of relief through both of the oldest archangels at the knowledge that Sam was no longer suffering from their past mistakes. The youngest archangel read their expressions, rolled his eyes, and reached out to grab Raphael and Gabriel. "While you two hang around getting emotional about nothing the rest of us are going to join the other part of the expedition. You can show up when you're done with all the mushy crying and hugging." Then he was gone, a snickering Gabriel and a grinning Raphael with him.


	4. Looking For A Firm Place To Stand

Balthazar blinked as Sam, Raphael, and Gabriel landed in a snickering cluster that looked more characteristic of Gabriel and Lucifer than Gabriel and two of the more reserved of the archangels. He glanced at Dean and Castiel who both shrugged. Moments later Lucifer and Michael followed, Lucifer pulling the youngest archangel into a headlock and ruffling his hair. Sam squirmed, laughing and trying halfheartedly to escape. "Can we possibly focus for the time being?" Michael asked with a half grin on his face.

"What's going on?" Dean questioned, looking about the group with a puzzled expression. Instantly expression sobered, as if the fun earlier had just been a way of putting of the inevitable.

"We think Gadreel has freed the Leviathans," Michael said grimly. "But we wish to speak to your friend to confirm it."

"We're simply going to pop into Bobby's home unannounced?" Castiel asked and then winced when Gabriel nodded cheerfully. "Someone is going to end up hurt."

"Yes," Gabriel agreed bright. "It's going to be wonderful." Castiel scowled at his older brother and Sam rolled his eyes.

"Come on guys," the archangel of death said. "The sooner someone gets shot the sooner we can decide whether or not our suspicions are correct."

"Sounds delightful," Raphael commented with amused tolerance. "Let's go before someone decides to take over the world while we sit here chatting." Sam nodded, following after his older brother and leaving the others no choice but to follow or be left behind.

\---

"I am really getting tired of you idjits showing up in my kitchen," Bobby grumbled when he suddenly had a room full of angels.

"At least Sammy here didn't go through your table this time," Gabriel commented and Sam blushed and scowled at his older brother.

"There is that," the grizzled hunter admitted, amused. There were some new faces, in addition to the old crew of Sam, Dean, Gabriel, and Castiel. The first as a man somewhere between Sam and Dean's heights with vivid blue eyes and light honey brown hair. He carried himself easily, as if he were used to authority and having people turn toward him for direction. The next one actually managed to be shorter than Gabriel with gold hair and bright hazel eyes. He would have gotten lost in Sam's shadow had he not had such an air of quiet confidence around him. The last two had pale blonde hair and light blue eyes but one had a wry twist to his mouth and the other was lounging, casual as a big cat waiting for its unsuspecting prey to walk by, against the doorframe.

"Sam went through a table?" the one with the sardonic smirk was asking and Sam scowled across the room at him.

"I'd just stabbed Uriel through the chest with an angel sword that wasn't mine. Excuse me if I my landing was a little off."

Dean snorted with laughter at that, Gabriel grinned, and Castiel rolled his eyes before turning to Bobby. "Sorry about the parade," he apologized. "I suppose we need to do introductions now." Bobby waited, knowing Cas was simply deciding what order he wanted to present things instead of actually asking. "The one with the obnoxious comments is Balthazar-" the blonde tilted his head slightly and Bobby nodded "-the brown haired one is Michael, the blonde is Raphael, and the one leaning against the doorway is Lucifer." The old hunter arched his eyebrows at that but didn't comment on it.

"I'm guessing you're here about whatever Ellen saw," he grumbled.

"It was a Leviathan, at least we believe it was," Gabriel informed the man.

"A Leviathan?" the hunter questioned.

"One of our father's first creations," Sam whispered, his voice harsh with fear. "Shape shifting monsters with silver tongues and an unquenchable taste for blood." He shuddered, stumbling back a step only to be stopped by Lucifer stepping forward to place a gentle hand in the middle of his back.

"They weren't always that way," Michael added. "But sometime during creation they grew jealous and resentful so our father shut them away because he didn't want to destroy them. Now we believe a rogue angel called Gadreel released them from Purgatory in order to take revenge on our father."

"I'm afraid I have more bad news for you all," Bobby said with a sigh. "Pamela called twenty minutes ago to say she'd had a vision of a werewolf with dark hair getting dragged off by one of those things."

" _Madison_ ," Sam gasped, expression crumpling slightly. "No, please no." Dean was already heading for the phone, carefully punching the buttons with shaking fingers so as to not shatter the plastic contraption. When he'd stayed with Maddy during the quest to find Michael he'd promised her he'd drag Sam to visit her once the whole mess was over. Now, if they couldn't get her back from the Leviathans, he'd never be able to keep his word.

The phone rang twice and then Madison's fiancé, Robert Eldrige, picked up. "Hello?" His voice was shaking like he was holding back tears.

"Robbie, right?" Dean asked. "Madison's fiancé. It's Dean. We met a while back."

"Please tell me you know what's going on," Robert begged over the phone. "Madison's missing and no one knows what happened to her. The police are saying she just walked off but I know she wouldn't do that."

"I need you to stay calm," Dean told the man. "I am going to come get you and explain everything I can. We'll get Madison back. I promise." Then he hung up before Robbie could say anything else, turning to look at his brothers. Michael nodded, motioning for him to go. Dean vanished then with a snap of his wings, going to retrieve the panicked man.

"The Leviathans may go after others we've known," Gabriel said, face pale as he considered the possibilities. The Novaks hadn't exactly been popular in the hunting world but they did have contacts. Some, like Pamela and Missouri, wouldn't come unless they saw their own lives in danger and in Missouri's case not even then. Others, like Ellen and Ash and Jo, could be persuaded.

"We should gather them up then," Castiel said. "Find a place to keep them safe."

"Bring 'em here for now," Bobby said gruffly. "We'll figure out what to do with 'em when they get here. But for God's sake don't try to shove 'em all in my kitchen. There isn't room" Then he turned and stomped out before anyone could comment.

"So who are we getting then?" Balthazar drawled. "Old friends? Mortal enemies? Past lays?"

" _Balthazar_ ," Michael warned but the angel just smirked, undaunted.

"Ellen and Jo Harvelle," Gabriel said. "The Leviathans have already gone after them. Ash should probably come as well."

"Lisa Braeden," Castiel added and Gabriel scowled at him.

"You didn't have to bring up old girlfriends!"

"You spent four months with her. The Leviathans are bound to figure that out." 

"Fine," Gabriel retorted, pouting slightly. "Then Rebecca Warren gets added to the list too."

"You said Jess was on earth, didn't you?" Sam asked suddenly and Gabriel nodded. "Madison was only connected to Dean and I but the Leviathans went after her. They might go after Jess as well." His expression said he couldn't take it if something happened to Jess.

"Someone will have to get Meg and Alastair as well," Michael added. "Any volunteers?"

"Not it," Gabriel said immediately.

"Oh for Dad's sake," Sam said, rolling his eyes. "I'll get them. At least they like me."

"Yeah Sammy, a couple of demons like you," Gabriel shot back. "Congrats."

"Shut up," Sam snapped in response.

"Easy there you two," Lucifer spoke up, stepping between the two brothers. "We don't need you two trying to kill each other along with the Leviathans." Both nodded, trying to let the tension that had been building up since they'd realized the Leviathans were targeting friends.

"I'll fetch Jess," Gabriel said by way of apology. Sam nodded, apology accepted, and relaxed some.

"And I'll go get Becky," Castiel spoke up. "Which leaves Lisa, Ellen, Jo, and Ash."

"I'll go track down Lisa," Balthazar volunteered with a wink at Gabriel which earned him a dark scowl.

"Don't try anything funny with her," the archangel warned. Balthazar smirked in reply and then blinked, wide eyed, as Castiel reached over to smack him on the back of the head.

"He's serious," Cas said. "Lisa is likely to go after you with a baseball bat if you do."

"Fine," Balthazar grumbled. "Noted Cassie." He got a muted growl in response but Michael cleared his throat before the conversation could continue and all attention focused on him

"Which leaves the Harvelles and Ash to Raphael and I," Michael said. "Fine. If we all aren't back in an hour then someone can consider coming after the missing parties but don't do anything rash. Do I make myself clear?" The oldest archangel got a series of nods before they was a sound like hundreds of rustling wings and Bobby Singer's kitchen was abruptly devoid of life.

\---

Rebecca Warren had graduated from med school a year ago and although she loved her job as a doctor it wore her thin sometimes. Now she unlocked her dark apartment and stepped inside, breathing out a sigh of relief. She didn't bother to flip on the lights. Becky knew her apartment inside and out. She had made it her home in four short months and now when she came home after dark she could make her way to bed without bothering to fumble about for light switches. Tonight she was really should have turned on the lights. Then again, maybe it was better that it was dark so she never saw the end coming. 


	5. First Blood

The first thing Castiel saw when he entered Rebecca Warren's apartment was the blood. Bathed in the watery pre-dawn light that filtered in through the gauzy curtains over the wide front windows, it looked like a scene that wouldn't be out of place on one of the late night _CSI_ episodes he and Gabriel had watched in crappy hotel rooms across the country before they'd known they were angels. Blood, the same bright red color of ketchup, was smeared all across the cream colored sofa and the lush chocolate coloring of the carpet, probably newer than the sofa. Becky had probably graduated from med school. She probably had worked in a hospital, making enough money to pay off loans and keep a nice little apartment when a homey mixture of new and old furniture.

Becky's body lay across the old mahogany and glass coffee table in front of the couch, sightless green eyes staring upwards and pale blonde hair fanning around her face. She hadn't changed from the girl Castiel had dated for six months during his college adventure. Well, excluding the fact that she was dead. Cas felt numb, beyond being touched. He could tell, just by sight, that she had been stabbed through the chest first. That had spattered blood all over and as she'd crumpled her neck had been snapped.

Whatever had done this, and Castiel had a good idea of exactly what it had been, had left a message. There, painted in blood like the tacky red smiley face on the wall of an apartment in the one episode of _The Mentalist_ he'd watched. For a moment the words refused to register in his brain as any more than symbols. Then, slowly, he deciphered the still dripping graffiti. _Your Turn_. 

For a moment he still felt nothing. Then anger, decidedly unangelic, washed over him. They were treating this as if it were a game. Something to laugh about. As if they were all playing a giant game of chess and that this was the greatest fun they'd ever had. His hands clenched convulsively into fists and his breath came out in a long, drawn out hiss from between his teeth. Then, forcefully calming himself, he crossed the room and reached out a hand to brush it through a strand of Becky's pale hair, flinching at the tackiness of the blood, and whispered, "I'm sorry Becky. So very sorry." He probably should go to Zach, her little brother, and comfort him. He should call 911 at least and tell them that Rebecca Warren was dead. Instead he spread his wings and flew. He had the fate of the world to weigh against personal loss and the world came first.

\---

Returning to Hell was like sinking back into an old nightmare. Almost. The difference this time for Sam was that his grace and his wings had been restored. Now the demons drew back, afraid. All but one. Alastair with his white eyes and wry smirk stood in the center of a crag of rock watching as Sam landed. "So eager for another round?" the demon commented and Sam snorted uneasily, keeping a wary eye on the demons gathering cautiously around him.

"The Leviathans have been freed." Sam's voice was so low that for a moment he wasn't sure Alastair had heard him. Then the demon nodded once, grimly. "I've been set to fetch you and Meg in case you become their next targets."

"Meg is topside," Alastair drawled, already reaching forward to grab Sam's shoulder. "Come on you overgrown pigeon. Let's get out of this nightmare before someone decides to string you up and tear out your feathers."

\---

The last time Lisa Braeden had seen Gabriel Novak she'd gotten a kiss and an ironic smile that had told her she'd never see him again. That was why she was a little surprised to see a man who claimed to be an angel of the lord sent from her old fling to take her somewhere safe. Lisa had hit him over the head with a baseball bat. She'd found herself remarkably unsurprised that it had broken the bat but not the so called angel. Now she stood in the kitchen with him, sipping her first cup of coffee in the morning and scowling over the island at him. "So the end of the world?" she asked at last, her tone skeptical.

The self-proclaimed angel sighed. "This is not at all going the way I wanted it."

"Tough," Lisa shot back, taking another sip of her coffee. She got a scowl in return. Lisa taught the alphabet to kindergarteners though, and before that early morning Yoga to half asleep teenagers, so she was immune to bitchfaces of all sorts.

"Damnit," the angel growled under his breath. "You're as good at that as Sam is."

"Pardon me?"

"One of my little brothers," the angel informed her. "He makes the same face when someone says something he doesn't appreciate." Lisa winced slightly at that. She didn't want to be whisked away from watching her parents' house by some stranger only to find out it was trap but she didn't mean to act like anyone's kid brother.

"I'm sorry to be a pain," Lisa said. "But there are plenty of psychos wandering around out there and I'm not entirely sure you aren't one of them."

"What if Gabriel confirms my story?" the so-called angel asked.

"Then I'll come with you," Lisa said calmly. "But until that point I'm staying here."

"Fair enough," the angel said with a sigh, reaching in his pocket and pulling out a cell phone. "But I'm not leaving."

"Fine," Lisa huffed. "But you can stay down here."

"Where are you going?" he called after her.

"I'm taking a shower numbskull," Lisa called back and stomped up her stairs before he could think of a reply.

\---

Gabriel stepped into the diner and breathed in the scent of grease and coffee and sweat. Jessica's eyes met his from across the room and she placed her tray on the counter, untying her apron as she said something to the waitress next to her. She crossed the floor with smooth strides and stopped in front of him, folding her arms across her chest. "What?" she asked, eyes black and curious.

"The Leviathans have been freed," Gabriel told her grimly. "Sam is afraid they might came after you." Jessica nodded, her expression amused and fond, and held out her hand. He took hers and spread his wings, returning to Bobby's in time for his cell to ring. "This is Jessica," he informed the gruff man, already flipping his phone open.

"I may have a problem," Balthazar said the instant Gabriel answered. "Your ex is refusing to come."

"What?"

"She doesn't believe I'm an angel."

"Oh," Gabriel replied with a smirk. "Fair enough. I'll be there in half a minute." Then he hung up before Balthazar could come up with a smartass comment in reply. "Sorry Jess. I gotta fly. Sammy'll be here shortly."

Seeing Lisa again was startling, especially with angelic vision was strange. He'd met her on accident during their last case before Cas had gone to college. He'd ended up spending the summer with her and since she'd been a yoga teacher at that point in time it had been the bendiest three months of his life. Lisa hadn't changed much, at least to his human vision. Her long dark hair still had caramel streaks through it and fell to just past her shoulders. Her eyes were alert and the set of her mouth was skeptical over the top of her coffee cup. In his angelic vision her soul was all brightness and hope with a little bit of suspicion.

Lisa jumped when he appeared and Gabriel rescued the coffee with a grin. "Hey Lis. Nice to see you again."

"Huh," she muttered. "I guess he was telling the truth."

"What?" Gabriel asked offended. "You don't think it's nice to see me again?"

"Yes Gabriel," she drawled sarcastically. "It is lovely that you decided to pop into my life to inform me that there are monsters coming to kill me. That's just wonderful." Balthazar snickered and Gabriel scowled at his younger brother. Lisa snorted at that and rolled her eyes.

"Ok, so I suppose I'll come with you. Just give me ten minutes to pack and bag and write a message for Mom and Dad," she said before turning on her heel and leaving the room.

\---

The first thing Sam did when he returned to Bobby Singer's home with Alastair and a supremely sarcastic Meg was to hug Jess. The tiny blonde squeezed him tight, like she was trying to break his ribs, and shook him lightly. "How do you get yourself into situations like this?" she demanded him.

"Bad luck I guess," he informed her with a rueful shrug. 

"You're as good at getting into trouble as I am at staying out of it," Jess informed him with a wry shake of her head. 

"You tell him sister," Meg cheered and Sam's worry that the two female demons wouldn't get along abruptly vanished when Jess giggled.

"Jessica," Sam said. "This is Meg. Meg, Jess."

"I think I'm going to like you," Meg informed Jess with a wicked smile. 

"The feeling's mutual," Jess reassured the other demon, grinning. That was when Castiel appeared in the middle of the room looking as if he had seen Hell and would very much like to rip the place apart.

\---

When Michael and Raphael arrived at Harvelle's Roadhouse they were greeted by loaded guns. "Ellen Harvelle?" Michael asked warily, obligingly raising his hands above his head.

"Who wants to know?" a brown haired, middle aged woman barked sharply from behind the muzzle of a shotgun.

"I am Michael and this is my brother Raphael," Heaven's commander replied. "Gabriel and Castiel Novak sent us."

"Why should we trust you?" the woman, presumably Ellen, demanded.

"If you doubt us call Bobby Singer," Michael answered, feeling the tense line of Raphael's shoulder and chest at his side. The healer could fight, if required, but like Samael had had a tendency to avoid battle situations.

"Jo," Ellen barked. "Cover them." The blonde girl nodded, gun held steady as Ellen made her way around the bar to the phone. She dialed and held the device to her ear, never taking her eyes off of Michael and Raphael. Neither archangel so much as twitched, well aware that the reaction would not be good if they were shot and it caused them no damage. "Singer?" Ellen asked over the phone. "I have two young men who just appeared in my bar claiming they're friends of the Novaks." She listened for a moment, frowning, and then turned toward Raphael. "You there, Blondie, get your ass over here and don't make any sudden moves." 

Raphael hesitated, glancing uncertainly at Michael. "Do as she says," he ordered, fighting down the urge to nudge Raphael behind him and spread his wings threateningly. Raphael was no longer a fledgling and perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Raphael approached the bar with measured steps and delicately took the phone from Ellen's hand.

"Mr. Singer?" There was a pause as Michael forced himself to remain still. Then Raphael held the phone out to Ellen without saying a word.

"Yeah?" Ellen asked sharply, pressing the phone to her ear. After a moment she frowned, said "well they could have called ahead," and hung up the phone. "They're clean," she informed the blonde and the girl put down the gun. "Why are you here?" Ellen demanded of them.

"The creature you called Bobby Singer about," Michael told her. "It's called a Leviathan. It and its brethren are out for revenge and we are afraid it will go after friends. We're here to bring you all to safety." Ellen studied him for several minutes and then nodded, as if satisfied.

"Fine," she said. "Jo, go pack your things. I'll deal with Ash." Then she turned to the two waiting archangels and added, "We'll be ready in five. But you'd better inform those Novak boys that I'll be demanding a full explanation soon."


	6. Monsters in the Shadows

The first thing Ellen Harvelle saw when she abruptly arrived at Bobby Singer's home with her daughter and Ash was a ridiculously tall young man with floppy brown hair. He was lingering in the doorway, his eyes fixed on Michael. "Sam?" Michael questioned levelly, as if sensing something were wrong.

"It's Castiel," Sam replied awkwardly, shuffling his feet slightly. "It's…I don't… You're just going to have to talk to him." Michael nodded solemnly and slipped past Sam, only pausing to gently squeeze his shoulder. Moments later Gabriel practically bounced into the room with a wild, maniac grin on his face. Sam instantly looked wary, a sentiment Ellen understood all too well. That expression on Gabriel Novak's face never led to anything good.

"Hello Ellen, Ash, Jo-Jo," he said brightly. Then he turned towards Sam. "Oh, and Raphael. Hey Sammy, do you-"

"No," Sam interrupted immediately, already shaking his head.

"Why not?" Gabriel whined. "You haven't even heard what I wanted yet?"

"I know you," Sam replied firmly. "The answer is still no."

"But Sammy," Gabriel pleaded, bringing out wide puppy dog eyes. Sam turned wide, pleading eyes toward Raphael then. 

Raphael let out a long suffering sight and said, "He's not helping you with whatever prank you have planned Gabriel."

"Oh come on," Gabriel complained but Ellen had heard enough.

"Gabriel Novak you owe me an explanation," she growled and this time it was Gabriel with the deer in the headlights look.

"Umm," he said intelligently and Ellen watched, amused, as Sam quickly made his escape, flashing an extremely thankful smile in her direction. "Well you know how Mom wasn't supposed to be able to have kids?"

"Yes Gabriel," Ellen replied in a tone she normally reserved for people who were being particularly dense.

"Well when Mom said that Cas and I were miracle children she was more right than she knew." Gabriel actually looked nervous, which wasn't an expression Ellen would have ever thought she'd be able to put on the elder Novak's face. "You see, Castiel and I are kind of angels."

For the first time in a long time Ellen Harvelle found herself speechless. She didn't know what to say to that particular revelation or if she even believed it. Part of her was absolutely sure that Gabriel was joking but another part of her quietly insisted he was telling the truth. "Kind of angels?" Jo spoke up, sounding skeptical and annoyed. "How can you be kind of angels?"

"We fell, " Gabriel told her solemnly. "Cas and I cut out our graces and plummeted to earth to become human. We got our graces back right before Lucifer was freed from his Cage but we never had time to tell you."

"You're being serious, aren't you?" Ellen asked him and he nodded.

"Well," Ash chimed in, as if contemplating. "You aren't very good at acting angelic."

"Never have been," Gabriel returned with a smirk. "So, introductions before you decide to kill or exorcise someone that we actually need around here?" Ellen nodded and followed Gabriel from the room. Two young women, both blondes, glanced up when they entered the next room and for a brief moment their eyes were black. "These are Meg," Gabriel said, indicating the shorter haired one, "and Jess. They're friends of Sam and, therefore, friends of us. Sam is my little brother Samael and probably hiding somewhere by now. You already met Raphael and Michael and you know Castiel." Ellen, Jo, and Ash all nodded with the long suffering air of one who knew Gabriel Novak and knew they were just going to have to put up with him for a while. Gabriel grinned at that and made a turn into the kitchen.

Standing there were three men, all of varying heights and with varying shades of blonde hair. "Alastair," Gabriel said, motioning to the one lounging furthest away. "Who is another friend of Sam's-"

"Friend would be using the term lightly," Alastair drawled, seeming amused, and Gabriel smirked.

"Balthazar," he motioned to the next. "And Lucifer." That got a reaction. Ellen felt her muscles stiffen automatically, Ash looked dazed and confused, and Jo just looked flabbergasted. "Don't worry," Gabriel continued blithely. "We're not all insane. He's not trying to destroy all of Creation now and Daddy even let him come home. Now come on, we have a few more introductions to make and I have a feeling Mikey's going to want to talk to some of us once he hears what Cas has to say."

\---

Kelly Hendricks was slight and slim. At barely five foot, Kelly could easily pass for a well-endowed middle school girl instead of the twenty-seven year old she actually was. Only one thing made up for that. Kelly was a red headed firecracker with a temper that was pretty much legendary. She was also a damn good police officer, one of the best on the force in her little podunk Minnesota town. Fear was not in Kelly's nature but tonight was different. Tonight was nothing she'd ever seen.

She'd been driving home from war in her nondescript tan sedan when someone had literally dove out in front of her. She slammed on the breaks, skidded across the road into the ditch, and still managed to hit what she'd been trying to avoid. Heart pounding, she'd scrambled out of her car, leaving the door hanging open. She'd expected the see a body lying limp in the road or trying to drag themselves up. Instead she was looking at a puddle of black ooze. It was moving on its own, shifting and rising until it was her height. Then it began to change.

Kelly gaped, stunned, as the ooze began to copy her features from her long red locks pulled up in a ponytail to her police uniform. "What on God's green Earth?" she muttered and was startled when her double smirked at her.

"Oh I think I'm going to like this body," it cooed. That was the last thing she heard before the creature snapped her neck.

\---

"Rebecca is dead," Castiel said coldly. The angels and demons were outside in the salvage yard while the humans talked in Bobby's house. Introductions had gone well, aside from the humans' general wariness around Lucifer, Meg, Jess, and Alastair. No one had shot anyone or tossed around holy water so, for hunter standards, everything was going smoothly. "She was murdered?"

"Leviathans?" Michael asked and Castiel's eyes narrowed.

"I would suspect so. They left a message."

"What was it?"

"Your turn."

Lucifer growled lowly, Michael's eyes turned dark, Dean's hand moved toward the knife strapped to his belt, Raphael shifted his weight into a fighting stance, and Sam flinched slightly. Balthazar, for his part, remained silent and dark. Alastair seemed unimpressed, Jess was chewing on her lower lip, and Meg snorted. "That's a little childish, don't you think?" Nine pairs of eyes turned toward her and she made her eyes wide and innocent looking. "What? They're treating this like it's some kind of game instead of war."

"They're playing with us," Michael said darkly. "And with Rebecca Warren's death we are already behind."

"Well we can't exactly catch up until we find one of them," Dean pointed out. "And they aren't exactly going to make this easy." Sam shuddered and Dean nudged him lightly with his shoulder. They were both remembering their last clash with a Leviathan, some time before Lucifer had been cast out of Heaven and Samael with him. The creatures were cunning and deadly and although they could not pass as angels it would be all too simple for them to shift shape and blend in with the human world.

"They don't like angels," Lucifer said. "And I doubt they'll like demons any better. Is there any way to discover where demons have been mysteriously vanishing?"

The three demons exchanged meaningful glances before turning back to the angels. "We all have our own networks," Meg said. "We can ask questions but we can't guarantee any of them would have heard anything."

"It's a start," Dean said with a shrug. "Besides that I'm not sure what else we can do."

"We need rules from this as well," Michael added. "No one leaves the grounds alone. I don't care how important you think that matter is; you take another angel or demon with you. The Leviathans are too strong to be taken down by a single angel alone. If you're by yourself they'll simply rip you apart."

"That still doesn't solve the problem of finding them," Balthazar pointed out.

"They'll be trying to track us down," Sam said grimly. "Or even call us out. We won't have to find them. They'll find us."

\---

"Jake, I'm home." The demon that had once been Lily Baker shut the apartment door behind her and walked the three steps into the kitchen, dropping her keys on the table. Ever since the Apocalypse that wasn't, Lily and Jake had gotten an apartment in St. Louis. Lily had gotten a job at a library as a school librarian and Jake worked at an automotive repair shop. "Jake?" she called, tilting her head. They had warded the entire apartment so that they were the only demons allowed inside which also kept her from expanding her powers to search for him. "Are you here yet?" No answer.

"Probably working late again," Lily sighed as she pulled out a coffee cup and filled it with water from the tap before shoving it in the microwave. While the kitchen appliance hummed, Lily pulled out a tea bag and the plastic container of honey along with a spoon. The clock ticked steadily in the background and nothing sounded out of place. She hummed softly, walking to the refrigerator and pulling open the door to look at the leftovers. While demons normally didn't have to eat, most possessed bodies that had souls. They then fed off the souls, which was a huge reason why most people came off so badly after possession. On the other side of the spectrum were Lily and Jake, who inhabited bodies which held no souls. That meant they had to get their energy from other sources, the easiest and most pleasant of which was actually eating.

Having decided that there was nothing that sounded good in the refrigerator, Lily considered dinner options as she pulled out her mug of hot water and added the tea bag, sighing as the smell of oranges rose up with the warm steam. She opened the freezer at last and pulled out a package of hamburger, deciding on spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner. She was thawing the hamburger in a bowl when she heard the front door of the apartment open. "Lily?" a voice called and the female demon tilted her head. Something was off in Jake's tone, just a little bit.

"Yes?" she called back cautiously, opening the fridge and pulling out the chilled plastic bottle of holy water they stored there just in case. "What is it?" She turned, unscrewing the cap and making her way to the doorway. What she saw in the small entrance of their shared home made her freeze. Jake was standing in the front room, back arched slightly as a slim woman with curly brown hair held a knife to his throat.

"Hello sweetie," the woman sneered. "So nice to see you."

"Who are you?" Lily demanded, her hand clutching tightly to the plastic water bottle.

"That doesn't really matter," the woman said and Lily noticed black veins oozing their way up her neck. "But you can call me Morrigan."

"The Irish goddess of battle and strife?" Lily jibed. "I don't think so."

"Believe what you want demon," the creature hissed. "But you're going to do what I say or your boyfriend here will be no more."

"He's not my boyfriend," Lily protested.

" _Silence_ ," the creature snarled, showing jagged teeth made for ripping and tearing. Lily let out a little gasp and silence, not even whimpering when her trembling hand dripped holy water through her sock on to her foot. "The word is that you have had contact with the Novak brothers," the thing hissed. "You are going to find them and pass on a message. If you do this successfully I will give your friend back unharmed but if you do not," it paused and grinned. "I will eat him. Am I understood?"

"Y-yes," Lily stammered. "What's the message?"


	7. Don't Kill The Messenger

The next morning Bobby was greeted with an unusual sight. Meg was pacing back in forth in his kitchen arguing with someone over a cell phone while Jessica stood in front of the stove cooking breakfast. "Good morning Mr. Singer," she cheerfully greeted him when he entered the room, her blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail. "Coffee should be done in a minute."

"Call me Bobby," he said gruffly. "Everyone else does."

"Okay," Jessica agreed. "Provided you call me Jess."

"Deal," the old hunter said without a thought as he headed over to the coffee mug to pour himself a cup. Jess giggled at his wording and turned back to her breakfast.

"I've got nothing," Meg said with a huff, snapping her phone shut. "Not a single one of my demons has noticed anything strange yet. I don't like it."

"I haven't heard anything yet either," Jess said. "But there's no point in worrying. Now start the bacon so I can focus on my eggs." Meg snorted but obligingly pulled out another frying pan and placed it on the stove.

"Where are our resident angels?" Bobby asked as he took a seat at his cluttered kitchen table.

"Outside plotting," Meg reported. "They've been heading out in groups of two all night, searching around the area for any sign of trouble. They haven't seen anything yet but that hasn't made them any less jumpy. Alastair's on the back step going through his contacts."

"What's that smell?" Jo Harvelle asked suddenly, stumbling into the kitchen. She was dressed in a ratty pair of sweatpants, an oversized t-shirt, and was looking none too awake. "Food?"

"Soon," Jess said with a light laugh. "Coffee's ready though."

"Good," Jo mumbled and stumbled toward the coffee maker, grabbing one of the clean mugs sitting by it and pouring herself a cup. She drank the first one fast, despite how hot it was, and was looking marginally more awake as she leaned against the counter and started on her second cup. Ellen joined them in the kitchen a moment later, fully dressed and looking much more alert than her daughter had. Jo poured her mother a cup of coffee and handed it over before returning to her own.

"This is so strange," the older Harvelle woman observed. "Sitting in a kitchen with demons."

"After the events in the past year or so?" Bobby replied. "I've kind of learned to go with it."

"Good answer," Meg commented wryly from her place at the stove beside Jess. "Now where are the plates? Breakfast is ready to eat."

\---

Sunlight slowly crept its way across the piles of cars in Bobby Singer's salvage yard. Sam watched the progression of the light with haunted eyes, hissing words echoing in his head from his last encounter with a Leviathan all those years ago. "Are you okay Sam?" The youngest archangel had to look up, from his position sitting on the ground to see Dean's face.

"Fine."

"Is fine some kind of archangel code for worried out of your mind?" Dean asked as he sat down next to Sam. "Because in that case I'm fine too." Sam snorted and Dean nudged him with his shoulder. "Seriously Sammy. How are you doing?"

"Not good," Sam admitted. "Every time someone goes out I keep waiting for them to come back in pieces. I feel like they've slithered under my skin and they're just waiting to break free." He shuddered and Dean slung an arm over his shoulders.

"Everything's going to be okay Sammy," he said softly. "I promise." Sam nodded, relaxing slightly as Dean pulled him over to rest against his older brother's side. "We won't let them get you."

"I know," Sam replied softly. They sat silently watching the sun rise. Neither one twitched as Lucifer returned from scanning the surrounding area with Castiel. The younger angel nodded once at Sam, who nodded back, and headed toward the house. Lucifer studied the scene before him and then settled protectively on Sam's other side.

"All quiet on the western front, " Lucifer said quietly.

"That's a terrible reference," Sam replied after a moment of silent consideration. "The main character dies at the end."

"You knew what I meant," Lucifer replied, pressing and rubbing his knuckles against Sam's ribs until the younger archangel squirmed further into Dean's side to get away. "There's no sign of the Leviathans, which could either be a very good or very bad thing."

"You're not helping," Dean informed the archangel.

"I'm not very good at being helpful," the Morningstar told him.

"I think everyone effected by the Apocalypse would agree with that," Sam commented from where he was sheltered at Dean's side.

"Thanks for that kid," the former Devil commented wryly, standing. "I'm going in to check on the crowd we have holed up there. Mikey and Balthazar are on patrol and Raph will be over in a minute if he ever finishes terrorizing the local birds." With that said Lucifer stood and headed toward the house.

"Terrorizing birds?" Sam asked, turning a mystified glance towards Dean.

"Like I know," came the swift retort. "He's _your_ brother."

"Yours too," Sam muttered, the corner of his mouth lifting up in a half smile.

"I won't admit to that."

"You don't have to. Everyone already knows."

"Knows what?" They both glanced up to see Raphael approaching them.

"That Dean's related to you," Sam answered. "And what exactly were you doing? Lucifer said something about terrorizing local birds."

"Ah yes," Raphael replied, cheeks turning slightly pink. "I may have accidentally disturbed some local wildlife. I overreacted a bit when one startled me and incinerated it." Sam couldn't help but snort at that and Dean flat out started laughing.

"That's brilliant Raph. Just wonderful. Great job."

"Thank you every so much," Raphael replied blandly. "Are you two coming in or are you just going to keep sitting there until the sunlight turns you to stone or something?"

"We're coming in, right Sammy?" Dean said, standing and tugging his younger sibling to his feet.

"It's Sam," the youngest archangel replied but he was grinning as he followed his older brothers into the house.

\---

The morning was going well, considering that they had the oldest monsters in all of Creation haunting their every step which was why, in retrospect, Michael probably should have seen this coming. He and Balthazar were scouting the surrounding area, the angels and demons had agreed on a ten mile radius the night before, when they saw a car driving recklessly toward Singer's house. The two angels exchanged a look before appearing directly in front of it. The driver shrieked, slammed on the breaks, and swerved off the road. The door flung open and a young woman, demon really, with dark blonde hair stumbled out. She glanced between the two and then blurted, "I need to speak to Samael."

"Who are you?" Michael demanded sharply. Balthazar nudged him lightly, as if to say he was being an idiot, but the demon turned to look at him with wild eyes. 

"Lily, Lily Baker," she informed him. "And I really need to talk to Sam. Now."

\---

"Sammy you have company," Gabriel all but sang across the room. "And she's pretty too, if not a little crazed."

"Shut up Gabe," Sam muttered walking into the next room only to be stunned into silence. Lily was standing there, eyes wild and body trembling slightly.

"Oh thank God," she muttered the instant she saw him and her entire posture seemed to wilt. "I wasn't sure I'd be able to find you."

"Lily?" he asked hesitantly. "What's wrong?"

"It's kind of a long story," Lily said awkwardly. "You see, after the apocalypse that wasn't Jake and I started sharing an apartment in St. Louis. Anyway, I got home before him last night and when he got home he sounded weird. When I came out this thing had him."

"Could you be a bit more descriptive than that sweetheart?" Balthazar asked and she scowled at him.

"Humanoid with black veins. Other than that, it could have passed as a perfectly normal human being. Well, except for the teeth," Lily informed them. "It wanted me to pass on a message to the Novak brothers. I didn't really want to but it said, well this is going to sound crazy but it threatened to actually eat Jake if I didn't." The angels exchanged meaningful glances and Lily sighed.

"So what's the message?" Sam asked.

"Just five words," Lily informed them, expression solemn. "I know what you are."

"What?" Gabriel blurted. "How?"

"Like I know," Lily snapped back. "I don't even know what it means, although I can guess."

"They may not know for sure," Castiel pointed out gently from another doorway. "They may be shooting in the dark and hoping they hit something."

"They?" Lily demanded. "They what?"

"Leviathans Lily," Sam told her gently. "They're Leviathans. Was there some way you were supposed to get Jake back?"

"I have a number," Lily replied, pulling a business card out of her pocket. "One of them was supposed to call it and they'd be told where Jake was going to be."

"Give me the card," Gabriel said, holding out his hand. Lily glanced at Sam, who nodded, and then handed it over, careful not to brush her skin against his. Sam could guess why. Lily's power was directly connected to her emotions and the more emotional she was, whether it was good emotion or bad, the more likely she was to kill whoever she touched. "Here goes nothing," Gabriel said, pulling out a cell phone, a new one to replace the one he'd dropped in a puddle during the apocalypse chaos, and dialing. "Heya, Gabriel Novak speaking. A little birdie let me know you wanted to talk."

There was a long minute of silence as Gabriel listened to what the Leviathan on the other end of the line. Then he said, "I have no idea what you're talking about. Just let me know where I can get my friend." He listened for another minute and then said, "Fine." Then he hung up. "They're some place in New Jersey," Gabriel informed them. "And there's a joke somewhere inside that, I swear. I just haven't found the punch line."

"Gabriel and I will have to go," Castiel said. "Anyone else besides us and Lily would alert them that something's up. We have to play at being ordinary hunters."

"It's going to get you two killed," Sam protested.

"Sammy, little brother," Gabriel said gently, stepping into Sam's personal space so he was solid and unavoidable. "We're going to be fine." He waited until Sam nodded before backing off and yelling, "Hey Bobby? Cas and I are gonna need a car."


	8. Adjusting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So not much action in this chapter (that comes in the next one) but lots of bonding and character development so hopefully it isn't a total loss!

Lisa Braeden was an only child so it was quite a shock to find herself in a house with a dozen other humans and non-humans. She'd spent most the morning chatting with Jo, getting the know the slightly younger blonde woman. Jo was a hunter from a family of hunters and she'd grown up with this kind of thing. It seemed that in this case Lisa was the odd one out. Now she was cooking supper in Bobby Singer's kitchen as the settling sun spread shadows across the room. "Need some help?" a wry voice asked and Lisa jumped with a light yelp. "Sorry," Meg said as she stepped further into the room. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"Can you keep an eye on the tomato soup?" Lisa asked hesitantly after a moment. "I can't make grilled cheese and make sure the soup isn't burning at the same time." She wasn't quite sure what to think about the demon or even the fact that she was standing in the kitchen with a real live demon. It was odd.

"Sure," Meg replied with a shrug. "I can't cook, not really, but I can stir soup." Lisa giggled a little bit and turned her attention to the grilled cheese. "This takes a bit of adjustment, doesn't it?" the demon asked.

"Yeah," Lisa agreed. "I had a normal life you know. Until Gabriel apparently."

"Was he a good lay?" Meg asked casually and Lisa choked on air before snorting with laughter.

"Why?" she jibed back cheerfully. "You interested?"

"Hell no," Meg grumbled, looking disgusted. 

"One of his brothers then?" Lisa pressed.

"I was just trying to make conversation," Meg muttered but Lisa was amused that the demon didn't try to refute the statement. "Keep your eyes on your grilled cheese." Lisa was still giggling but she didn't press any further, just turned back to the food. Twenty minutes later and the humans were all gathered at the table. Robert Eldridge's eyes were still red rimmed from tears but he actually did join them, muttered a thank you to Lisa when she handed him a mug of chamomile tea, and ate silently. The rest of them chatting, the girls getting along well despite the fact that Jo and Lisa had known each other for maybe twenty-four hours and Ellen was at least twice their age. Bobby and Ellen chatted too, trading information from their search to find some way to detect the Leviathans or even slow them down. Ash hadn't bothered to come downstairs so Meg had taken some food to him in a vain hope he'd eat while he was working on who knows what on his computer. For a moment the tension drained out of the room and Lisa briefly allowed herself to imagine that this was just some really odd family reunion she'd been dragged to.

\---

There was something Jess found fascinating about the night sky. The blue-blackness of it, the twinkling of distant stars that lingered far outside of her reach, it all added to something that took her breath away. "What are you doing?"

"Do you have to get into everyone's business?" Jess asked Meg without any real heat, still staring at the sky.

"I don't know what you mean," came the response.

"Liar, liar pants on fire," Jess sang, finally looking away from the stars. "I heard you with Lisa earlier."

"Well if I'm going to have to leave with people for who knows how long I might as well get to know them," Meg huffed, sitting down next to Jess. "Are you pining?"

"No," Jess replied simply. "But I think you are."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I don't know how you ever became a demon," Jess informed the other female. "You're a terrible liar." Meg sputtered next to her and Jess grinned. "I've seen how you look at him, when you don't think he's looking of course. It's adorable."

"Shut up," Meg muttered. "I don't do adorable. Besides, Sam's like my brother."

"Who said anything about Sam?" Jess asked slyly and Meg groaned. The blonde giggled, curls bouncing, and reached over to ruffle Meg's short bleached blonde hair.

"I hate you," the other demon informed her. "You know that right."

"You're adorable," Jess cooed and then yelped as Meg nudged her off her perch sitting on the bottom step of Bobby's porch.

"I am not adorable."

"No you're not sunshine," a new voice chimed and Meg growled as Balthazar joined them. "But right now you're about as intimidating as a Chihuahua." Jess, who had gotten half back to upright, toppled down again as she all but died with laughter.

"Thanks a lot," Meg snarled, looking disgruntled and flushed and angry. Jess couldn't stop laughing as Meg stomped into the house, Jo Harvelle who was just exiting caught the door before it slammed against her face.

"What's her problem?" Jo asked curiously.

"She doesn't appreciate being teased," Jess replied, hiccupping slightly in a vain attempt to hold down her giggles.

"No kidding," Jo muttered with a roll of her eyes. Jess shooed Balthazar off with a wave of her hand and settled down on the bottom step again, patting the space next to her. Jo sat with a heavy sigh.

"So what's bothering you?" Jess asked gently. Jo studied her out of the corner of her eye.

"Can I trust you not to tell anyone?"

"I'm good at keeping secrets," Jess replied.

Jo hesitated and then nodded once, as if coming to a decision. "All I wanted to do was hunt," the girl said. "I've wanted to hunt all my life and Mom has kept me away from as much of the dangers of hunting as she can. I've always resented her for that but now? Now it's kind of like I got everything I ever wanted, involved in a dangerous hunt without Mom protesting about it, and I realize I don't really want it. Does that make any sense?"

"Yeah," Jess told her. "It makes a lot of sense."

"I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse," Jo informed the demon and Jess grinned gently.

"When I was your age I wanted to run away with Sam," Jess told Jo, eyes soft with nostalgia. "I was young and in love and I thought he was everything."

"What happened?" Jo asked curiously.

"Lots of things," Jess replied. "Sam was forced to flee, there were a lot of angels out and about during the crusades, and I was furious. I decided I wanted power to help people like Sam. I didn't find it for two years, and then I met a demon. I don't remember her name but I remember she pretended to befriend me and offered me what I thought I wanted. I took it without even thinking. It worked out okay in the end but it was a little sketchy around the middle." Jess shrugged slightly and then added, "I guess what I'm trying to say is you aren't really going to know what you want until it's right in front of you so consider all your options. Does that help?"

"Yeah," Jo said. Then she giggled a little. "Do you know what I dreamed of when I was little?"

"What?" Jess asked curiously and Jo flushed slightly.

"Getting married, you know the white dress and the nice house and all that?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Jo said, flushing even brighter red. "To Cas if you can believe that. He was my first kiss."

"That's adorable," Jess squealed and Jo flushed tomato red.

"If you tell anyone-" the young female hunter threatened but Jess waved her off.

"I won't, I promise."

"Good," Jo said darkly, trying to control her flushing as she stood. "I'm going back inside."

"Okay," Jess replied easily, tilting her head back to enjoy the stars once more. "Sleep well Jo."

\---

Having this many people and non-humans inside his house was not Bobby Singer's idea of a good time. Everywhere he went there was a person, angel, or demon hanging around. Sure, Gabe, Cas, and Lily had left hours ago to go get back Jake and confront a Leviathan but he still had almost a dozen people in his home. He finally settled in the library, looking for any sign of the Leviathans. Slowly the house fell quiet around him. The only sound was the flipping of the pages. Meg joined him an hour in, then Jess. Alastair was back on his cell muttering again but the words weren't in any language Bobby recognized. "There's nothing," Meg said at last. "It's as if the Leviathans never really existed."

"They didn't." Sam's voice was sudden and startling in the shadows of Bobby's home. "At least not in human memory. They've been locked away since before humans roamed the Earth. The last time they were free was before Lucifer fell."

"So how do we get rid of them?" Bobby asked gruffly and the archangel flinched slightly.

"They have to be stabbed by an archangel's blade," he said. "Most times more than once. The nature of the blade eats through their essence and slowly destroys them. There is no other way to kill them. At least none that I am aware of."

"How about detecting them?" Bobby pressed and Sam shrugged.

"We can feel them. It's like ooze washing over us, coating us, but I don't know of any other way."

"We could ask Joshua." Raphael's sudden suggestion startled the entire room. "He might know something," the archangel continued if he hadn't noticed their wide eyes and suddenly tense limbs.

"It's worth a try," Sam admitted. "Are you volunteering?"

"Sam," Raphael said tiredly. "Joshua bares no grudge against you. You know this."

"Doesn't matter," Sam replied softly. "I don't fit up there anymore." Raphael sighed but nodded once, vanishing in a fluttering of wings. "You should get some rest," Sam told the Bobby. "You won't find anything in those books and the rest of us will keep watch." The old hunter nodded and headed for his stairs, unwilling to argue with something who had such a dejected look on his face.


	9. The Brunette

Leviathans didn't have names, not really. They were referred to in the collective or singularly but they had never bothered with names, choosing instead to steal the names of those whose appearances they took. This particular Leviathan hadn't discovered the name of the human whose persona she'd assumed. Instead she had chosen to steal the name of a goddess that had died on the battlefield a thousand years ago in blood and pain. She paced the warehouse, waiting impatiently for the two hunters and their demon to show up. She had her demon tied up and dumped in a sack like a bundle of squirming kittens she intended to get rid of. And she did intend to get rid of him. She didn't plan on letting anyone walk away from this particular meeting.

The rumble of a car caught her attention and she began to grin, dropping a hand to stroke the knife resting against her hip. The door to the warehouse screamed its way open and Gabriel Novak marched in with a cocky smirk, his younger brother following behind him. "Hi honey," he chimed brightly. "I'm home."

"It took you long enough," she sneered in response. The female demon followed hesitantly after them, her hands shoved in her pockets and her shoulders hunched slightly as if she were trying to make herself invisible. "I assume you want your friend back."

"Friend is stretching things a bit sweetheart," Gabriel drawled with an eye roll. "Acquaintance maybe." His posture was casual, almost arrogant, and it made her want to laugh at his foolishness but she reigned herself in. She had not come this far to spoil the game because an arrogant little peacock thought he could beat her.

"It does not matter," she replied. "What matters is what you came for."

"Jake," Castiel said grimly. 

"You called and we came," Gabriel added. "And in the end someone is going to regret that." The Leviathan smiled slimily. She wasn't going to be the one who regretted anything. "So why'd you want us here?"

"I was curious," the Leviathan said mildly. "Well, I say I but I mean we. We heard all about the Novak brothers and that one was dragged out of Hell by angels. Those nasty little birdies never leave their precious home but we'll rip them from the rafters soon enough."

"Oh?" Gabriel questioned curiously. "That's nice to know, I guess. Now can we have Jake back so we can get out of your hair."

"No," she replied simply. "You see, I'd love to let you walk away and save this for a day where I can take my time, one where I can really make you scream, but I simply can't do that."

"That's too bad," Gabriel replied, honey colored eyes darkening. "Because we were going to let you go if we could. Right Cassie?" His younger brother nodded and the Leviathan was startled by the angel blades held easily in their hands. "Let's try the introductions again, shall we?" Gabriel asked cheerfully. "My name is Gabriel and this is my brother Castiel. We're here to kill you."

" _Angels_ ," she hissed furiously. "I will rip the flesh from your bones and feast on your remains."

"You can try," Gabriel growled lowly. The Leviathan laughed, voice high a crazy, and twisted fluidly to drag a long and jagged blade from behind a stack of empty crates. The blade lashed out, separating the two angels as they dove out of its reach.

\---

Castiel felt as if his heart was going to pound out of his chest. The Leviathan was smiling as if she'd just been given a new toy, slashing out at Gabriel with incredible speed. The young angel knew instinctively that he wouldn't last a minute with this creature's full focus on him. Blade clutched tightly in hand, he circled around to attempt to get behind the creature only to have the blade flash towards his face. He didn't tumble back quite fast enough and cried out as the wicked blade sliced his cheek open down to the bone. Blood bloomed there, along with the light of his grace, and he stumbled back.

Gabriel was on the Leviathan in an instant, landing a sharp blow into her shoulder that made her howl. She whirled around and swung the blade hard at the archangel while Castiel shifted his grip on the blade and cautiously made his way forward again. The creature seemed to hear his movement, ducking Gabriel's next strike and whirling to attack him again. He managed to block the first blow, arm straining against superior strength, but the second one sunk swiftly into his side just below his rib cage.

Castiel tumbled to the ground with a pained whimper, more grace spilling out as the Leviathan loomed over him, smiling with needle like teeth. "Hey!" Lily's voice yelled and a knife came whirling through the air, momentarily distracting the monster as it moved to knock away the knife with its own blade. Castiel tried to scramble away and then whined in pain, slumping to the floor as his strength steadily slipped away. It reminded him painfully of being human and all the times he'd bled helplessly on the ground while Gabriel had struggled with the monster of the week.

His older brother came out of nowhere, blade blazing with light as it plunged forward through the Leviathan's back. The creature screamed in fury and Castiel forced himself forward, shoving his own sword through her stomach. That gave Gabriel the time to pull out his own blade and send it through her spinal cord and throat. The Leviathan opened its mouth in a silent scream and then exploded into a shower of black ooze. Castiel wanted to complain about the mess but couldn't summon the energy to do so. 

Gabriel dropped to his knees next to him, pulling him close. Castiel gasped in pain at the sudden movement and Gabriel murmured, "Easy little brother. It'll be okay in a minute, I promise." Grace washed over him, stronger than his own, and his mouth opened in a silent, startled scream. When he managed to slip back into himself, his whole body was trembling against Gabriel's sturdy frame. "How're you doing little brother?" Gabriel asked with a weak grin.

"Better," he croaked out, trying to sit up. Gabriel helped him and he watched as Lily freed Jake from the bag.

"Your grace took some pretty good hits," the archangel informed him. "It'll be a day or so before it builds back up so you can even fly."

" _Great_ ," Castiel muttered, his head spinning from the effort it took to sit up.

"It could have been worse," came the easy reply. "Who taught you to use that sword kiddo? Because you suck at it."

"Zachariah," Castiel breathed out, sure there was still some kind of scarring on his grace from Zachariah's little cuts. He could still hear the angel snapping that he was worthless at this and that he didn't know why he bothered.

"That explains a lot," Gabriel muttered as he hoisted Cas to his feet. "Zachariah was always shit with a sword. You two ready to go?"

"We're going home," Lily said firmly and Jake nodded next to her.

"They'll come after you again," Gabriel warned and Castiel swayed weakly against his older brother.

"Then we'll fight," Jake rumbled.

"It will hurt Sam," Castiel forced out, his voice rough and cracking.

"Pardon?" Lily asked, tilting her head like a curious bird.

"Sam likes you both," Castiel replied roughly. "Possibly more than he should. It would hurt him if something happened to either of you." Lily and Jake exchanged meaningful looks, silently communicating in a way only people who had known each other for a long time could.

"You'll still be where I found you?" Lily questioned.

"Yes," Gabriel confirmed, his grip on Castiel tightening when the younger angel felt his legs fall out from under him.

"We'll be there in five days," Lily informed them. "Now get before your brother passes out."

\---

Lucifer glanced up from the book of lore he had been casually flipping through when Gabriel landed, holding up Castiel. "What happened?" he demanded, instantly standing and striding across the room to press a hand against Cas's forehead. "His grace-"

"The Leviathan got a couple hits in," Gabriel explained, carefully holding the unconscious angel up. "It's dead but Cas doesn't know how to fight, not really. Zachariah taught him, or as much as that asshole ever taught anything. It'll take a couple days for his grace to build up again but then we need to fix that problem." Lucifer nodded, slipping around to actually pick up the young angel.

"I'll get him covered up on the couch or something," the Morningstar said. "You need to go reassure Michael that you and Cas are both still alive."

"Great," Gabriel groaned. "If he kills me please burn the body." Then he turned and marched off, leaving Lucifer to smirk after him. Gabriel did have a talent for pushing Michael's buttons that normally resulted in entertainment for anyone in the vicinity and yelling from both archangels.

Castiel stirred as Lucifer settled him on Bobby Singer's couch, eyelashes fluttering restlessly. "Easy kid," the archangel murmured. "You're safe. Rest." Castiel settled again and Lucifer went back to get the book that had been entertaining him before Gabriel's sudden interruption. Then, book in hand, he returned to the living room to keep watch over his little brother.

\---

"They have killed one of us." The name of the body she had killed and then imitated was Eliza Howell, a rich heiress. Eliza's money would go to a good cause but that was not the concern of the green eyed brunette.

"Stay calm," came the smooth reply. Eliza turned toward the form of Richard Roman. The real leader of Roman Enterprises was rotting in the basement of his own home but this Richard was alive and well. "It could simply be luck."

"Or angels," a wry voice commented. The Leviathan taking the form of Andrew Ferris, a former Navy SEAL who was also rotting in Roman's basement, seemed amused by that idea. "Those feathered children may be coming down after us."

"Doubtful," Roman replied. "But there is one way to be sure. Send a call to the one in South Dakota. See if she can get close enough to where the hunters are hiding to tell what they are."

"Of course," Andrew replied with a smooth smile. "It would be my pleasure."


	10. Invisible Eyes

Castiel woke slowly, feeling drained and dizzy. He tried to sit up and felt panic rising up when he realized he couldn't, breath catching in his throat. "Easy little brother," a cool voice purred and Cas forced his eyes open to see Lucifer leaning towards him. "How do you feel?"

"Tired," Castiel replied roughly, his voice rasping in his throat as if he'd been strangled. "Human," he added as an afterthought and Lucifer snorted.

"Right, sure," the Morningstar said. "Regardless you missed Michael yelling at Gabriel for ten minutes and then hugging him hard enough to crack ribs."

"He was very disgruntled," Sam added from the doorway, sounding amused. "It was fun to watch."

"Speaking of fun to watch," Lucifer said slyly. "We're going to give Cas here fighting lessons and we figured we might as well finish up yours while we're at it."

"Who's we?" Sam asked warily, eyes focused on Lucifer's frame as if watching for attack.

"Michael, Gabriel and I," the older archangel replied. "Possibly Raphael as well."

"Oh no," Sam said quickly with a headshake, retreating when his older brother flowed to his feet. "I had enough of that during my time as a fledgling. I am not having a repeat performance."

"Sorry kid but you don't get a choice," Lucifer replied, smirking.

\---

"Do you feel like you're being watched?"

"Hmm?" Meg asked, turning her head to look at the blonde. The demon had left the house to get some fresh air and Jo Harvelle had followed, claiming she needed some shooting practice. Jess had joined them ten minutes later with a battered copy of Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein_ , claiming she had never gotten to read it all the way through and it was a classic.

"Do you feel like you're being watched?" Jo asked again. Meg paused in the middle of what she was doing, drawing protective symbols intertwined with curses in the dirt with a stick as she sat with her shoulder pressed against Jess's. She considered and was surprised by a prickle of unease that ran up her spine.

"Do me a favor Jo," Meg drawled, standing and pulling Jess up with her. "Go find one of the boys and tell them that Jess and I went to check something out, okay?"

"Yeah," Jo said, heading past the two demons and into the house. Jess placed the book on the top step and followed Meg out of the protective circle and into the woods. The two walked with silent, predatory steps, all sense stretched out around them.

"Do you feel it?" Meg asked softly.

"Yes," Jess replied, expression troubled. "Meg, I think we should go back."

"Why?" Meg asked lightly even as she nodded at Jess and the two began backing toward the protective circle. "We can handle this."

"Yeah," Jess drawled. "Right until it sneaks up and bites us on the ass." Meg snorted at that, amused, and the two breathed out a sigh of relief as they stepped back into the host of protections the archangels had put up over the last couple of days.

"What's going on?" Gabriel asked from behind them.

"Something is out there," Jess replied, tone cool. "Watching us."

"Isn't that lovely?" Gabriel drawled, stepping forward to join Jess and Meg in their intense study of the seemingly empty woods. "Demon you think? Or other?"

"Other," the females replied in unison.

"Nice to know," the archangel replied. "So which one of you wants to go check it out?"

"Oh no," Meg replied immediately. "There was a reason I checked in with Dean instead of you."

"I'll do it," Jess volunteered.

"You have got to be joking," Meg snapped, spinning on the other blonde. Jess simply arched her eyebrows at the other female demon. "Oh dear lord, you aren't."

"Great," Gabriel chirped. "Let's go then." Jess looked mildly taken aback by Gabriel's enthusiasm and Meg giggled at that. Jess sighed and trailed after him, looking less enthused by the task before them with each passing second. Meg shook her head at the pair of them and headed into the house. She headed for the living room, knowing that there would be someone there since Cas was camped out on the couch.

"What's going on?" the youngest angel asked the moment she stepped into view.

"We think someone is watching us," Meg replied. "Some _thing_. Jess and Gabriel went to check it out."

"They're going to end up killed," Castiel muttered, trying to stand and then falling back against the couch with a startled cry. "Help me up."

"According to your brother, last time you tried to take on a Leviathan you ended up almost getting killed," Meg informed him.

"He has to be able to stab it twice," Cas choked out. "And I doubt Jess will be any more help than I was."

"I can't judge that," Meg replied but she was already moving forward to support Castiel. "Come on kindergarten angel. Let's get moving before one of your brothers notice you're awake and running away."

"I'm not-"

"Just shut up Feathers."

\---

Jess was a silent shadow at Gabriel's heels as the two of them made their way through the woods. She wasn't as much a warrior as he was, her footsteps a little too loud in the silence. That worried him. He had no idea where the creature was and Jess was probably letting it know exactly where they were. On the plus side, if it attacked them at least they'd know where it was at. Suddenly Jess froze, head snapping up like a hunting hounds and body all focused energy. Eyes turned to solid black pools and she tilted her head, smirking just the slightest bit. "I see you," she sang out lightly, not even moving. The woods remained dead silent but Jess seemed undeterred. "You may as well come out. Your stench is kind of hard to miss."

"What are you doing?" Gabriel hissed at her, not caring that his voice was probably carrying further than he would have liked it to. Jess ignored him, slowly pivoting as her eyes focused on something in the woods.

"That isn't going to work," she chided. "I've been around the block a few times and you? You don't hardly know how to manipulate that human body you're mimicking." That barb hit home because a figure with dark glossy hair and well-rounded curves lunged out of the shadows. Jess moved faster than Gabriel expected her to and the Leviathan was suddenly standing between them, angry gaze fixed on the demon.

"You arrogant little bitch," the Leviathan sneered. "I have existed longer than you've been alive."

"And you've been imitating a human how long as compared to me?" Jess drawled back lazily. " _Please_. You're still in kindergarten."

"I will rip the flesh from your frame, crack your bones and drink the marrow-"

"You know there's one tiny problem with that," Jess interrupted. "This ain't my body." The Leviathan silenced, as if temporarily stunned by that. Gabriel felt the comfort of his sword held easily in hand and hesitantly circled closer. It had been a long time since he'd battled a Leviathan and unlike last time, this one was being distracted. That would have been an advantage had Gabriel remembered exactly how sensitive to sound and movement they were. The Leviathan twitched slightly but Jess continued talking, drawing all the attention to her. "I'm pretty sure my real body rotted away a long time ago. I was a redhead before this, you know. And sure, I like this body but I can always find a new one."

Gabriel took advantage of the Leviathan's snarl of fury to lunge forward and plunge the sword straight through its chest. The thing shrieked and lunged toward Jess with more power than Gabriel had expected, ripping the sword out of the archangel's hands. The Leviathan backhanded the demon, sending her tumbling back. Gabriel thought he heard footsteps but he doubted it was another Leviathan so he focused most his attention on trying to get his sword back. " _Move_ ," he heard Meg bellow and he scrambled away in time for Castiel's sword to fly over and sink into the Leviathan's side.

The creature faltered, snarling again, and Gabriel lunged forward to rip his sword free. The Leviathan faltered and then ripped Castiel's sword free as well, throwing it aside and then turning with a snarl. "You will die," it hissed. "Every single one of you." Then, with a sound like ripping paper, it vanished into thin air, leaving only rancid black blood behind. "What are you even doing off the couch?" Gabriel demanded of his younger brother.

"Takes more than one hit to kill a Leviathan," Castiel shot back, leaning heavily on Meg. "Didn't want to leave you without backup."

"I had Jess."

"And were you actually aware Jess could back you up?" Castiel shot back.

"That's unfair and you know it Castiel," Gabriel snapped but Jess held up a hand to stop him from going any further.

"Castiel is right," she said with a gentle smile in the young angel's direction. "I'm not a fighter. Witchcraft and distraction I can do but fighting? You should know better than to trust someone to have your back without knowing their capabilities just as you should know better than to trust someone you do not know to have your brother's back."

"Okay, okay," Gabriel grumbled, looking properly chastened. "Thanks Cassie. Now let's get you back inside before you pass out." Castiel arched his eyebrows but didn't protest when Gabriel retrieved the weapons and Jess moved to support his other side.

"You have nice timing," the curly haired blonde informed the angel.

"Thanks," Castiel replied roughly and she smiled widely at him.

"Oh stop making eyes at him and get moving," Meg grumbled. Jess did shift but she arched her eyebrows at the other demon over Castiel's bowed head as if asking if the other demon really wanted to go there. "You don't scare me."

"I should," Jess replied. "I can do things that would make your hair curl and then fall off."

"Hey," Meg grumbled. "Leave my hair alone." Jess just smirked as the four of them headed for the house. Gabriel and Castiel wisely stayed out of their bickering, simply grinning tiredly at each other. Lucifer was waiting for them on the back step looking annoyed.

"What do you think all this is?" the Morningstar demanded. "Some kind of game?"

"What happened to Sam?" Gabriel replied immediately and Lucifer scowled.

"We don't know," Michael called from the doorway. "He just dropped and started muttering in some other language."

"What in Dad's name?" Gabriel muttered slipping past Lucifer and Michael into Bobby Singer's house. Sure enough, Sam was slumped in a heap on the floor with Lisa Braeden holding his head in her lap. Sightless hazel eyes darted restlessly across the ceiling and his lips moved, forming words that none of his older siblings recognized. His head thrashed for a moment and Lisa began to hum soothingly until he calmed.

"How long has he been like this?" Gabriel demanded, kneeling next to Lisa.

"Ten minutes at the most," Michael replied. "Dumah went to summon Raphael and then start the route with Alastair." A flutter of wings drew their attention toward the doorway and Raphael crossed the floor quickly, taking Lisa's place holding Sam's head. His eyes closed and his full focus turned toward his little brother's mind. Moments later they opened again, his face creased with confusion.

"It's like there's some kind of shield," the healer said. "Like he's unconsciously blocking me from gaining any access."

"So what do we do?" Gabriel asked, glancing at Michael for answers.

"We move him somewhere more comfortable," the oldest archangel said. "And we pray to Dad that he snaps out of it soon."


	11. Past and Future Intertwine

Roman Enterprises was pristine. The lobby was pale cream tile that was now dripping with blood as a Hispanic woman with a jagged hole in her middle stomped across the floor. A receptionist shrieked and a low level grunt dropped his coffee, mug shattering on the tile. The Leviathan ignored all the chaos as she made her way to the elevator. The ride up was filled only with the sound of her blood dripping on the glass floor as the wound in her chest refused to heal. Damn the angels and their foolish little blazing blades. She would see them all dead.

The elevator dinged and she stepped out, crossing the hall in sure strides despite the continued blood loss , and knocked on the thick office door. "Come in," a voice called and she pushed the door open, pulling it carefully closed behind her. She was greeted with the sight of two brothers and a sister sitting around a large mahogany desk.

"They are angels," she snarled. "There were at least two of them, maybe more. There are demons working with them."

"They will die," her sister hissed, expression cold. The other two smiled, warm and satisfied, and she allowed herself to be drawn in.

\---

Rebekka Rosen saw herself as a mostly reasonable young woman. Okay, so sometimes she got a little worked up over fictional characters but when it was her half-brother writing the characters she was totally justified. Not hearing from said half-brother in a month though was enough to get her worried. Chuck never waited that long between calls and he wasn't answering his phone. "He's probably drunk on his ass on the couch," Becky muttered even as her banged up little Nova rattled along the long driveway. She practically threw the lever into park and flung herself out of the car, leaving the door hanging open and the little warning alarm dinging.

Becky stormed up the steps and raised her hand, fully prepared to pound on the door. Then she froze as it swung inwards with a low screech. "Chuck?" she called hesitantly. "Chuck are you there?" No answer. "Chuck? It's me, Becky." Still no answer. Even though Becky watched every horror movie she could stand and knew better than to enter the creepy empty house she took a step forward anyway. Everything appeared to be untouched, just the way Chuck always left it, but the silence was oppressive. 

Becky moved a little further into the house, glancing around. That was when she saw the blood. "Okay," Becky breathed out, quickly backing out of the house as her fingers scrambled in her pocket for her cell phone. "I'm done now." She rushed back to her car, slamming the door shut before successfully pulling out her phone and dialing 911.

\---

Sam came to with a groan, his head pounding. He felt as if he'd been run over by the Knight Bus. "Sammy, how are you feeling?" He glanced at Dean through his eye lashes, head throbbing in time with his heartbeat. "That good huh?"

"What happened?" Sam croaked, sighing in relief when Dean eased him up slightly and pressed a glass of water to his lips. His older brother waited until he'd drank and settled back before answering.

"You just passed out man. Tumbled to the floor and started mumbling in some language none of us know while you stared at the ceiling like it was going to eat you." Sam gave his brother a look like he didn't quite believe him. "I'm telling the truth Sam." Sam's face creased with worry. 

"I need to talk to Death," Sam said softly. 

"You need to let Raphael look at you first," Dean protested.

"Fine," Sam breathed out. "But then I need to speak to Death. It's important."

"Okay Sammy," Dean said reassuringly. "I'll call Raphael down and get the supplies you need to summon Death. You just stay here."

"Sure," Sam mumbled in assent, waiting for his brother to leave before rolling his head to glance blearily at Castiel. "They being this annoying to you too?"

"Yeah," came the frustrated reply. "We're not invalids."

"The curse of being a younger sibling," Raphael's wry voice commented from the doorway. "Trust me, I got it before you came along Sam." The youngest archangel arched up into his brother's touch, sighing in relief as coolness eased away the throbbing in his skull. Raphael's eyes narrowed in concentration as Sam relaxed against the worn fabric of the couch. "Your grace has been sapped by whatever that was," the healer said, keeping a cool hand pressed against Sam's forehead. "You won't be any more help than Cas for a couple days until it charges back up."

"Thanks a lot," Castiel said dryly, a hint of shyness in his tone as if he weren't entirely sure how Raphael would react.

"You're welcome," Raphael returned in an equally dry tone and Sam snorted, shaking his head slightly under his older brother's palm. Raphael's hand moved to ruffle his hair lightly and the healer grinned when the younger archangel grumbled at the action. "Dean said something about summoning Death."

"It's about something he said a long time ago," Sam said in answer to the unspoken question. "I need to ask what he meant."

"Okay," Raphael replied with a nod. "Sleep little brother. It will be a while before Dean gathers the supplies you need."

"What did Joshua say?" Sam asked blearily, trying to fight sleep and then sighing in frustration when his older brother's grace pushed him toward it anyway. He knew he needed it but he also had things he needed to know.

"He's seeing what he can discover. Now rest Sam. You have a while yet before Dean gathers everything you need and you might as well take use of it." Sam sighed again but gave in to the persistent call of slumber, exhaustion pulling him into dreamland before he could even think of any other reason to protest it.

\---

"The house is clear," one of the officers said.

"Can somebody just tell me what's going on?" Becky pleaded, frustrated beyond belief. The police had arrived two hours ago, interviewed her, and left her standing lost next to her Nova while they swarmed all through Chuck's house and yard. They ignored her continuing to chat with each other, and Becky felt her blood begin to boil. Normally she was very even tempered but today had pushed her to the breaking point. "Everybody just shut up for a minute," she bellowed and the two officers nearest to her snapped around to stare at her.

"Now ma'am," one of them began hesitantly.

"Don't ma'am me," Becky snarled. "That's my brother's home, there is blood on the floor, and I want to know what the fuck is going on."

"I think I can explain that miss," a new voice piped up and a young woman in plastic coveralls stepped into view. "The blood will be sent to be analyzed along with the fingerprints we've found in the house. There isn't enough blood for any injury to have been lethal and there are no signs of a struggle inside the house. Hopefully within twenty-four hours we will be able to tell you more than that."

"Thank you," Becky said, voice thick with relief in exasperation.

"You're welcome," the young woman said, reaching into her pocket beneath the coveralls and handing Becky a white card. "This is my number. Call me tomorrow at noon and I'll let you know what I can. In the meantime I suggest you either go home or get a hotel room for the night." Becky thanked the young woman again and headed for her Nova, hoping that maybe the drive to find a hotel would calm her nerves.

\---

Sam wasn't quite sure when he fell asleep. One moment he was staring blearily across the room at Castiel and in the next he was standing in a white room. His father was standing on the other side of the room, smile soft. "Hello Sam," his said. Sam smiled shyly, unsure what was going on.

"The Leviathans are free," Sam said at last. "And they're coming after us."

"I know."

"Why haven't you done anything about it?" The question was out before he could stop himself. Sam knew his face paled and his wings trembled before tucking tightly against his spine. Sam had never been particularly close to his father and talking to Him was always an unnerving situation. It always made Sam want to go hide somewhere until he could catch his breath. To his relief, his father simply laughed.

"You don't know it yet son, but I've already given you all the tools you need." Sam felt something trying to wake him and Father smiled at him. "Tell your brother I need to talk to him."

"Which one?" Sam asked.

"Dean," came the simply reply before Sam jolted awake.


	12. Deadly Secrets

Waking up hurt. Sam's grace was mending itself and that wasn't a pain free process. "How are you feeling Sammy?" Dean was leaning over the top of Bobby's couch, eyes concerned.

"Sore," Sam grumbled. "You got everything?"

"Yeah. Took me a bit but I managed to piece everything together. Lisa and Jess helped me set up Bobby's barn for it."

"Thanks," Sam said, weakly pushing himself upright. "By the way, Dad wants to talk to you." That comment was greeted with silence as Dean froze.

"He spoke to you?" the older angel asked at last.

"While I was resting," Sam said gently. "Is everything set up?" Dean nodded, mutely absorbing what he'd been told. "I'll take care of summoning Death. You go talk to Dad." Dean vanished with a flutter of wings. Sam took a moment to feel satisfied with himself before he realized he couldn't actually stand up. "Well crap," he muttered, debating over which sibling he could call to avoid being made fun of. "Raphael," he called finally, almost hesitantly. His older brother was there in an instant, expression both worried and curious. "I uh, Dean had to go talk to Dad." He hesitated but Raphael simply tilted his head slightly and waited for Sam to finish. "I can't walk by myself."

Raphael nodded silently and eased Sam to his feet, steady and silent support all the way to Bobby's barn. "What did they do about our little invasion problem?" he asked as they walked.

"Gabriel and Balthazar decided to booby trap the woods," Raphael replied with wry amusement. "Apparently they think a few traps worthy of being made by a cartoon coyote will keep the monsters at bay." Sam snickered at that and Raphael brought them the rest of the way into the barn while they were still smiling.

Dean had actually set everything up and Lisa and Jess stood chatting on one side, careful not to disturb the symbols. "Hey," Sam said awkwardly. Lisa waved a little at him and Jess smiled brightly enough that her eyes crinkled at the corners. "Thank you for your help."

"It was our pleasure," Jess informed him and Lisa nodded with an easy smile. Sam smiled back, finding it as easy to grin at Jess as it had always been.

"You two probably should leave," he told them. "I may end up in my true form for this." Both women nodded and headed out of the barn, chatting like they'd been friends all their lives. Then it was just Raphael and Sam, their eyes fixed on the symbols.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Raphael questioned. "He might not even come."

"I know," Sam replied. "But I have to try."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Thank you," Sam breathed and Raphael's hold momentarily tightened before releasing him, allowing him to stand on his own. "Okay," Sam said, slightly breathless because of the effort it took to stand upright. "Let's summon Death."

\---

"Have you got everything packed yet?" Jake's voice was amused as it reached Lily in the bathroom of their apartment.

"Give me five more minutes," Lily shouted back, tossing things into a bag. She had never thought of herself as a woman who took forever to pack but she supposed there were some stereotypes you just couldn't escape.

"I'm leaving in five with or without you," Jake called but Lily knew it was an empty threat. Jake was like a brother to her and there was no possible way he would simply walk out on her. She tossed in her toothbrush and zipped the bag, leaving the bathroom looking as if a hurricane had gone through it. The rest of their necessities were tossed into a couple bags, leaving Lily to shove the bathroom supplies into her backpack. The amulet around her neck smacked against her collarbone and she huffed, slightly, reaching up to curl her fingers around it. "Ready to go?" Jake asked and she nodded.

"Let's get out of here," she told him. "I don't know why I thought coming back here was a good idea. This place gives me the creeps now. Every time I walk out of the kitchen I expect to see that _thing_ waiting for me."

"Let's hit the road then," Jake told her, slinging a friendly arm around her shoulders. Then he added in a lower tone, "Because to be honest the faster we get out of here the happier I'll be."

\---

The chant fell from his lips, liquid syllables rippling from between tongue and teeth and lips. It was as natural to him as breathing and the act made him feel stronger as the summoning drew all his power together. Then it rushed out, symbols gleaming with unearthly light, and he felt his legs come out from under him. Raphael was there to catch him in an instant, easily supporting him as the symbols blazed even bright than before, becoming blinding even to angelic eyes. Sam shrunk back against his older brother, eyes squeezing tightly shut. When he managed to force them open again he found Raphael's wings wrapped protectively around him.

"Raph?" he questioned and the wings slowly withdrew to slow a wizened old man standing in the middle of the symbols. He appeared innocent enough unless you could see the power coiled tightly underneath that mortal skin. Then he was suddenly extremely terrifying. "Hey," Sam said hesitantly and Death smiled, looking like a father greeting a favored child.

"Hello Samael," came the greeting. "You appear to be whole, though I would not necessarily call it well." Sam felt himself relax at that and Raphael's protective hold on him loosened.

"Thank you," he replied awkwardly, gaining a soft smile for his efforts. He was hesitating to ask what he needed to with his brother present, unsure how he wanted to proceed.

"You have a question," Death said calmly. "Ask."

"You said something a long time ago," Sam told him. "Something about my destiny being intertwined with that of the Leviathans." He waited to feel Raphael draw away from him, waited for the disgust when his brother realized he was connected to monsters. Instead Raphael squeezed his shoulders lightly in encouragement to continue. "What did you mean?"

"It is difficult to explain," Death replied. "But I can show you." He stretched out his hand and Sam's gaze fell to it. He found himself suddenly unsure if he really wanted to learn the truth or not. At last he stretched out his own hand and took the offered one. Raphael released him carefully and the world spun around him in a wild blur.

\---

Joshua was waiting for Dean when he arrived in Heaven. "Our Father is waiting for you," the gardener told him, motioning for Dean to follow him. Joshua stopped at the entrance to the Garden, possibly the most sacred part of Heaven, telling Dean, "Whatever he needs to tell you must be of the utmost importance. Father has not shut himself away in the Garden since the beginning of time. Heed whatever he tells you." Then Joshua turned and left Dean standing alone, hesitating to enter. The last time he had spoken to his father had been before Lucifer's rebellion and all he remembered of it was the overwhelming sense of awe he had felt.

Finally he entered and was instantly pulled to the center by gentle tendrils of pure Creation. For a moment he saw nothing and everything, for Father was nothing that could be described even by angels. Then the mortal form of Chuck Shurley was standing before him. "Dumah," he greeted in a voice that reverberated through Dean's very being. "Welcome."

"Sammy said you wanted to talk to me," Dean replied and didn't miss Father's fond smile at the nickname.

"He was right," Chuck turned serious very suddenly, beckoning Dean closer. "Your brother is about the need you more than ever. He was created for a purpose, one that will weigh heavily upon him."

"Why tell me?"

"Because the others will not understand or glimpse the full way that this news will affect him," Chuck replied. "You see, when I created Samael it was not only because Death required assistance. It was because of the very real problem of what happened to those souls considered monsters once they died. They had all been relegated to Purgatory with the Leviathans but there were many that did not deserve this fate. Samael was to sort the souls and leave only the monster souls deserving of punishment in Purgatory but to do so required the Leviathans to be destroyed.

"Unfortunately killing a Leviathan is near impossible. Therefore at the time of his creation he was bound to the Leviathans in order to combat them better."

"Why tell me?" Dean repeated again, weakly. His mind was already racing toward Sam, knowing the younger angel would likely spiral from the information and believe himself tainted.

"Because I trust you to do the right thing when it comes to your brother, just as you have always done," Chuck replied. Dean ducked his head slightly, warmth curling in his stomach at his father's words. 

"Thank you," he replied and Father smiled.

\---

Sam found himself standing next to Death in Purgatory. "This place was originally created to house the Leviathans," Death said. "It was to keep them out of the way but when Eve created her first monster it became obvious that they needed a separate place to rest until they could be judged. Thus Purgatory was modified to hold them until they could be sorted, a task that would be impossible unless the Leviathans themselves were eliminated. That leads me to you."

"Me?"

"When you were created your very existence was bound to that of the Leviathans. You are irrevocably tied to them which was to give you the tools to erase them from all of Creation." Sam felt something sick coil in the pit of his stomach. From the moment he had been created he had been connected with the most twisted and evil creations in all of Creation. It was no wonder Michael thought he had gone bad, that Lucifer had assumed he would choose willingly to rebel. Tied to something so twisted how could they assume otherwise. "I know you will not believe me now," Death continued. "But this does not reflect poorly on you nor does it make you any less than you were before."

"Just-" Sam forced out, feeling breathless and sick. "Just take me back. Please."

"Of course," Death said, reaching out a hand towards him. "Remember Samael, if you need me I will come when you call." Then Sam took Death's hand and the world spun once more.


	13. The Girls Are Back In Town

Lily settled in the passenger seat of a beat up old sedan, tapping her fingers absently to the beat of the static filled music filtering through the ancient radio. Jake drove, his expression twisted up with solid focus and intent as he navigated the twisted roads toward South Dakota. So far no one had followed them but Lily was not eased by that fact. Instead she felt edgier than ever as possibilities raced through her mind. She twitched slightly and turned her head toward the rearview mirror. Just cars behind them weaving slowly around the trundling semis that move on like gentle giants. Still she wasn't calmed. She twitched again and glanced at Jake. "We need to ditch the car," they both said as if someone had flipped a switch. Then Lily let out a nervous laugh and settled back in her seat.

\---

Kali had been enjoying a peaceful afterlife when she found herself rudely catapulted from her precious memories. The result was a very angry young woman standing, or floating, on one end of a concrete room while the asshole of an angel that had dragged her out of Heaven stood on the other side. Kali wasn't particularly sure what had possessed her parents to have her named after the Hindu goddess of war and destruction but she swore in that moment that she was going to live up to her name. "Is there a reason for this?" she demanded sharply, unfazed when the angel smiled at her. "There had better be a good one," she warned him. "Otherwise, so help me God, I will turn you into a toad."

"You are here because of your connection to Gabriel," the angel told her. "My brother has become a nuisance in recent days and you are a way to control him."

"Right," Kali snorted. "Did you get off the short bus or something?"

"I do not understand," the angel told her, tilting his head slightly, and Kali flat out laughed. It wasn't a nice laugh. Instead it was cold and mostly humorless but she couldn't help herself. The idea that an angel, an extremely powerful celestial being, didn't understand modern slang was funny but the thought that it was going to use her against Gabriel tempered and chilled that amusement.

"How are you even real?" she asked coldly, hands planted firmly on her hips. 

"I exist because my Father chose to create me," came the reply and Kali groaned.

"Note to self," she muttered. "Never use sarcasm with an angel. They don't understand sarcasm." The angel seemed puzzled and Kali decided that this was far more interesting than Heaven had ever managed to become. "So what do we do now?" she continued in a louder voice. "Sit in the warehouse waiting room of death and just hang around?" If possible, the angel looked even more confused. Kali began to think that maybe this wouldn't be as exciting as she had thought.

\---

Lisa Braeden was feeling out of place. She wasn't a hunter. She had never fired a gun, never hunted a monster, never exorcised a demon. She was the odd one out in this home and she felt that difference acutely. That was why she was standing on the back porch, hesitating to approach Jo Harvelle. The slightly younger blonde girl was practicing her aim with a rifle, shooting cans that gleamed in the ratty looking grass right before it became the jumbled mess that was the salvage yard. Standing beside her was Meg, laughing about some comment Jo had made right before she'd made another excellent shot that sent the gleaming red and silver Coke can jumping slightly above the grass.

Meg turned to grin over her shoulder at Lisa, waving slightly before turning back to say something to Jo. The blonde turned to look at Lisa and waved enthusiastically. "Hey Lisa," she called cheerfully. "What's up?"

"Not much," Lisa replied by habit, making her way off the porch and over to the two women. "You?"

"Just getting some practice in," Jo said. "You wanna give it a try?"

"I don't know how," Lisa answered, her cheeks turning blazing red with embarrassment.

"I'll teach you," Jo replied. "It isn't difficult. Come on, give it a try." Lisa nodded hesitantly and took her place next to Jo, carefully taking the gun from her. She was vaguely aware of Meg stepping away to give them some privacy but most of her attention was on Jo's calm voice and the sudden rightness of having the weapon in her hands.

\---

It took a while for her to exhaust every option but Kali could finally say that there was no way for her to get out of this room. It had been warded in every way possible to keep her in the room and as a spirit there wasn't really anything she could do to fix that. Instead she paced the room as best as she could, feeling impatient and angry. At least Heaven had possessed better surroundings. It had been a gilded cage, sure, but at least it had been pretty to look at. This was someone's nasty old cellar.

"They've got you stuck here too?" The voice that spoke was mild and curious. Kali turned to see a red headed young woman standing, or rather floating, behind her. The woman was just as translucent as Kali herself and, despite her mild tone, looked no more pleased.

"Who are you?" Kali demanded, wary. 

The young woman laughed slightly, shaking her head and then smiling wryly at Kali. "You may as well call me Anna Milton. That name works as well as any."

"So why are you here Anna Milton?" Kali asked.

"It's a bit of a long story," Anna replied. "Honestly, I shouldn't even be here."

"Why not?"

"Do you know what happens to angels when they fall?" Anna asked.

"Why would I even care?" Kali retorted and the red head shrugged.

"As if I know. I was just asking. It pays to check sometimes, you know." Anna paused for Kali's nod and then continued. "When an angel falls, either by force or by choice, they become human. Often enough their memories are pushed away and they never remember who they are. Therefore they are reborn every time they die."

"Thus the theory of reincarnation," Kali spoke up and Anna nodded, smiling.

"Exactly. If one of the fallen remembers who they are, if they happen upon something that triggers their memory, and are killed they die the same way angels do. Their very souls are extinguished and only God can bring them back," Anna replied. "That should have been me. I should have been extinguished forever. Instead I'm here, talking to you." Kali hummed thoughtfully and Anna sighed. "Do you know who put you here?"

"No," Kali replied with a snort. "Why would I? I mean, it isn't as if he just showed up and introduced himself."

"Male vessel," Anna mumbled. "That doesn't narrow it down much." The red head looked as frustrated as Kali felt, making the other young woman feel better. "What's the last thing you remember?" Anna asked suddenly. "Before you ended up here."

"I was in Heaven," Kali replied, speaking in a tone normally reserved for slow children. "In the memory of my last Thanksgiving with my family."

"You don't remember anything odd about it?" Anna pressed. "Anything that was just a little bit off?"

Kali opened her mouth to demand that Anna quite being so stupid when something struck her. "The pie," she said, shivering all over with sudden disgust.

"Beg pardon?" Anna replied, sounding puzzled.

"The pie," Kali repeated. "It was burning. Mom never burned pies."

"So minor manipulation of your Heaven," Anna muttered.

"Does that help?" Kali asked, curious and upset because somebody had screwed with her wonderful afterlife. No one should be allowed to get away with that. 

"Maybe," Anna replied. "I've been dead a while so things may have changed upstairs but there are only a few angels that would dare mess with the sanctity of Heaven. I mean, there are rules against that sort of thing and most angels are real sticklers for following the rules. Is there anything else you recall? Something the angel told you perhaps?"

"That I was here because of my connection to Gabriel," Kali replied with a shrug. "He didn't understand sarcasm either."

"That's most angels honey," Anna replied with a wry grin. "Trust me, most of them wouldn't know how to act human if it was to save their lives. As for the reason you are here; is it for revenge?"

"I would assume so," Kali answered. "But I don't understand it. How could Gabe have pissed somebody off in Heaven? He could be an annoying pain in the ass but he hasn't done anything to piss off angels. Has he?" Kali suddenly felt lost and uncertain, as if she were about to be told that everything she had ever known was a lie. Anna smiled at her sadly.

"I'm sorry Kali, I am so very sorry. I wish I could tell you that Gabriel were innocent of whatever crime this angel believes he committed but I cannot. You see, Gabriel, your Gabriel, is an angel. An archangel in fact."

"You're lying," Kali accused, her voice shaking.

"No," Anna denied gently. "I am not. You see, a long time ago there was a war and Lucifer fell in flame. All of Heaven shook and flamed and screamed with loss but there was nothing we could do. The Morningstar was too far gone. In the aftermath, everything changed. Two archangels had fallen from Heaven, our leader was wrecked by the betrayals, and it was left to Raphael and Gabriel to hold it together. Gabriel was always the bright one, a second light burning next to Lucifer's brilliance, but seeing the brother closest to him rebel so thoroughly broke him. There was nothing any of us could do to help." Anna's eyes were anguished as she looked at Kali, as if searching for some kind of absolution. "He chose to fall. He cut out his grace and he was gone and all of creation cried out at the loss."

"Oh God," Kali whispered, eyes filling with tears. She wasn't the type of girl to cry at every little dying critter on the side of the road but this? This was too much. This was a story of absolute anguish.

"Raphael managed to keep everything together after that," Anna continued. "And though we didn't know it yet Michael had already fallen. Dad was on a walkabout without leaving a message on the fridge to let us kids know when he was going to get back and everything just kind of splintered. That's why some in Heaven may hold a grudge against Gabriel."

"But you don't?" Kali asked, desperate for some kind of happiness in the bleak tale.

"I could never hate my brother," Anna replied with a slim smile. "So, what are we going to do when we find out what this angel is up to?"

"We're going to whoop his ass," Kali replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. And maybe it was because Anna straightened from the partially hunched position she had assumed while telling the story and smiled bloodily at her.

"Oh," Anna said, her lips curving with the smile. "We most certainly are."

\---

Meg was digging through yet another of Bobby Singer's lore books, helping Jess in the attempt to find something, _anything_ , about the Leviathans, when Dean came storming in as if his tail was on fire. "What's the rush?" she inquired curiously as Jess glanced up from another thick tome, blinking owlishly.

"Have you seen Sam?" Dean demanded and Meg frowned, trying to remember when she'd last seen the reserved archangel. Coming up to the conclusion that she hadn't, she turned to glance at Jess who shrugged helplessly.

"We don't know," Meg reported and Dean looked worried. "You want help looking for him?"

"Yeah," Dean agreed immediately and Jess slammed the tome shut despite the fact that she'd just been ranting five minutes earlier about how old and delicate the thing was. Apparently it wasn't as much of a special snowflake as Sam was. 

"You two check out the outside, especially the woods," Jess ordered. "I'll search the rest of the house including the roof. We'll meet back here when we're done." None of them protested, Dean already heading for the back door. Meg followed him at a trot, short legs not quite able to keep up with his longer rapid strides. The two of them crossed the backyard without a word to anyone else and began to search the twisted, burnt out skeletons of cars heaped around the salvage yard. There was no sign of Sam so they headed further, into the woods beyond.

The silence worried Meg. It felt as if the surrounding area had simply been abandoned by local wildlife and that signaled danger. The two kept hushed as they split apart to cover the surrounding area, automatically sending out tendrils of power so they could connect if one was in danger. Meg tracked her own path through the twisted foliage only to freeze by the withered frame of an ancient tree. Just beyond it was death.

It was as if something had simply exploded there. Grass and trees and moss and tangled vines fell limp and black to the ground leaving a clearing torn out by pure power behind. "Oh Sam," Meg whispered, stepping carefully in the clearing. Though the archangel was not in sight, she had no doubt it was he who had caused this. She couldn't help but feel, seeing this mess, that the Leviathans should be afraid of the youngest archangel. If he was capable of this much destruction on his own he could very well be deadly with his siblings. "Dean," she called and moments later the angel was with her, staring with wide and very impressed eyes at the carnage.

"Nice," he said, glancing around. "Sammy's been holding back on us."

"Maybe not," Meg replied, broken ad blackened tree limbs cracking under her weight. "I think he was upset about something. This much wide scale destruction? It just isn't Sam's style. At least not the Sam I knew."

"Sam's never been one for widespread death and chaos," Dean agreed. Meg was worried. Sam was nowhere in sight and with as upset as he would have had to have been when he created this mess, he had probably fled the area."

"We need to find him," she insisted urgently. "Before one of the Leviathans does."

"I think any Leviathan should be afraid of _him_ right now instead of the other way around," came the reply but Dean looked worried as well. "Listen Meg, I'm going to have to leave the perimeter to find Sam. I want you to go back and tell the others where I've gone."

"We're not supposed to leave alone," Meg protested. "And besides, it's _Sam_. You can't just expect me to sit back and watch while you go looking for him."

"Yes I can," Dean growled. Meg scowled at him and he softened reluctantly. "Meg, listen, I know what's going on. I've been told what he has and I have a pretty good idea of what's going through the kid's head right now. He likes you, Dad only knows why, and I don't think this is something he wants you to know."

"Fine," Meg gave in after a moment but she raised and blood red fingernail to jab into Dean's face. "But you'd better bring him back in one piece or I swear on the name of your Father that I will rip you so badly apart that only He will be able to put you back together again."

"I would expect nothing less of you," Dean replied with a smirk and a proper half bow before he was gone in a flutter of feathers leaving Meg behind to agonize and wait.


	14. Agony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the later posting today! I worked every single day last week (including Sunday) slept in till ten, and felt no motivation to do anything even though I already had this chapter written until now. On the plus side, I have a couple days in a row off now and should be able to get further ahead in this story than I am right now! Enjoy!

Sam ended up in the windswept Himalayas after the destruction. Ice and snow smacked against his face, rising in twisting currents toward mountain peaks just above him. Sam sank down in the white powder and screamed, his true voice causing avalanches and rock falls. The air around him reverberated with the song and color of his true voice for a long, mournful moment before falling silent. Wind hissed past him and he shivered even though he couldn't feel the chill. What he had just been told, what had been confided in him, was devastating. To find that, from the moment of his creation, he had been tied to twisted monsters was horrifying. It was also another confirmation that he was wrong. That he didn't fit into this world. That he shouldn't fit into it.

_Born to fall_. The words whispered in his head like poison. They coiled around his grace like twisted serpents made of jagged shards of glass and ice cold enough to burn. They choked him. Silenced him before he could even think to cry out again. Crouched in the snow of the Himalayas, Sam wept. His tears froze in glistening trails down his cheeks but he could not stop the silent sobs that wracked his body. His world had been torn asunder while he was watching and there had been nothing he could do.

Death had insisted that no one should think less of Sam because of this. He wasn't sure that was true. From the beginning, from the very moment he had been brought into being, he had been tied to abominations. Attached from creatures so twisted that they had deviated far from their intended purpose. They were blinded by their hatred, some much further gone than Lucifer had ever managed to be. They were nothing but rage and hatred as cold as the ice that stung his cheeks. They needed to be destroyed.

That thought alone drove Sam back to his feet. He stood, wavering in the wind but determined. He was bound to the Leviathans. He could destroy them. Wings, heavily coated with ice despite the fact that they were mostly immaterial, spread and snapped sharply. In an instant he was back within the borders of the United States of America, no longer cut by the harsh cold of the heights of the Himalayas. Minnesota was cool and crisp but it held none of the deadly chill he had just experienced. Instead it felt almost warm and refreshing against his skin. 

He breathed in the crisp, clean air and closed his eyes, reaching deep inside himself. At first there was nothing. Not light, not heat, not grace, and certainly no link with unimaginably evil monsters. Then something stirred within him ,like coiled heat. An exhilarating feeling rushed through him, like the first taste of sugar on a child's tongue. Something registered on that level, like burnt sugar, sour and disgusting. He followed the taste , walking down the middle of the road like an idiot. He couldn't quite care when it felt as if someone had attached a string to his heart and was tugging him along with sharp jerks.

A police car was the only vehicle on the road and it was steadily making its way toward him and the closer it got the stronger the taste of burnt sugar got on his tongue, eventually accompanied by that or rotten oranges. The police car stopped in the middle of the road a few feet away from Sam and he stopped too, studying it as if he had never seen anything like it before. The door opened and what looked like a young woman with red hair in a police uniform stepped out of the vehicle. Black veins traced their way up her neck and the smell of burnt sugar and rotten oranges practically dripped out of her pores. She smiled, wide and wicked, revealing suddenly jagged teeth.

"Well, well, well," she cooed. "What have we here? A little archangel far away from home and all alone. What a treat." The slimy tone took him back to Heaven where he was cornered by a Leviathan and about to be killed. That was enough to shake him out of whatever daze he had been living in. He shuddered and backed away a step, wings curving defensively at his sides. "Now don't be like that," the Leviathan cooed. "We were just starting to be friends."

"I could never be friends with something like you," Sam shot back, feeling a shiver work its way up his spine.

"That's funny considering the fact that you were exuding the kind of energy we normally do just moments ago," the Leviathan purred. Sam felt sick, his grace twisting uneasily around his still beating heart.

"You-You're lying," Sam retorted but his voice shook.

"Now why would I lie about something as wonderfully terrible as that?" the Leviathan questioned. Sam didn't know. He was shaking all over, violently, cold in a way that he hadn't been in the Himalayas. He wanted, he wanted to be anywhere but here. He wanted to be a fledgling again with no idea of how wrong he really was. So wrapped up in his own hurt, Sam didn't realize that the Leviathan had gotten dangerously close until it was too late.

\---

Tracking down Sam was going to be near impossible. Dean had known that from the moment he left Meg alone just inside the little sphere of protection they had set up but he had never imagined it would be this difficult. Sam had hidden the traces of his grace deep, reminding Dean of exactly how long his little brother had been forced to hide from Heaven. He was half tempted to go back for help but he'd promised Meg that he would find Sam and bring him back safely. He had a feeling if he returned without Sam the demon would try her level best to kill him.

He ended up sitting on top of a diner stretching out his grace as far as he could. Chances would good that Sam would leave the country initially but from what stories Sam had told him of his past, Europe had not been particularly friendly. His only companion from that time was Jess and Dean doubted he'd return to a place where the memories were so miserable. The middle east was war torn, had been for a while, and Sam refused to speak about Russia so whatever incident had happened there had not likely been a good one. India was a possibility, Sam had found companions in a couple of the deities there, so that was where Dean turned his grace towards first.

It was a frustratingly slow process. Even in an almost blind panic Sam had hidden his grace well and moving too quickly risked the chance of overlooking something. Finally he found traces near the peaks of a cluster of the Himalayas. Dean had to admit that if Sam was looking for a place to be alone, that was a good choice. He was there in a flutter of wings, standing knee deep in snow and shivering as he stretched his senses across the icy mountains. Nothing. Sam had left the Himalayas behind. Where would he decide to head towards?

Briefly Dean entertained the idea of Australia. Sam had mentioned once that he'd never been but would like to go when everything finally turned normal again but Dean doubted his little brother would be headed toward some place unfamiliar. Not when he felt threatened. He wouldn't head back to South Dakota either. That was too close to siblings and Sam was holding what could be a deadly secret close to himself in the vain hope he could hide it from everyone. The United States was a good guess then. Dean frowned, unsure which state to even begin looking in. Then a memory trickled in, one of the first conversations they'd had in the brief resting period in Heaven before they'd realized Gadreel had freed the Leviathans. "North or South US?" he'd asked Sam.

"North," had come the immediate reply, accompanied by a wrinkled nose. "I don't really like the chill during the winter months but compared to the alternative?" He'd shrugged then, an all too human motion on an angel.

"What's so wrong with the south?" Dean had questioned.

"Two things," Sam had retorted easily. "Zombies and Voodoo Queens. Well, maybe three. New Orleans is a good reason too."

North it was then. Ignoring the icy chill, Dean turned his grace toward the northern United States, hoping to catch a glimpse of his little brother. It took long enough that he felt the chill begin to sink deep into his bones. Then he felt it, the unmistakable flare of Sam's grace. It had been muted somehow, and Dean was guessing not by Sam because of the twisted feeling that came with the muting of the grace. He stretched his icy wings and flew without thought toward the feeling. He had a little brother to rescue.

\---

Sam's whole being felt like one big ache as he slowly came to. He was lying awkwardly sprawled on the floor and when he tried to sit up the chains twined around his body, painted in blood, pulled taut. His back screamed in protest and he gasped for breath, staring at the odd symbols painted in blood and gore around him. "So Sleeping Beauty finally decided to wake up," a voice sneered and Sam turned only to gag.

The red headed Leviathan was painting more symbols, this time on one of the walls, using the blood of a dead little girl with blonde pigtails. There was another mutilated girl, this one a couple years older with brown braids, lying discarded on the floor a few feet away with blood and vital organs pooled around her. He gagged again and the Leviathan snickered cruelly. "What?" she demanded archly. "Can't handle a little blood?" She dropped the body, letting it flop to the ground like a discarded doll, and sauntered over to his prone from, pressing bloody fingers tight under the vulnerable curve of his jaw. Sam scowled up at her as darkly as he could with his stomach still rolling at the scent of human blood. She smiled and then released his jaw, turning and walking back over to pick up the body.

"Who was she originally?" Sam croaked out, hoping to stall the Leviathan so he could figure out what she was doing. So he could figure out how he was going to get out of this mess. She'd bound his grace somehow, probably by the symbols on the chains, and he was trapped and helpless. "Before you killed her and assumed her identity."

"Kelly Hendricks," the Leviathan replied with an amused sneer that informed him she knew exactly what he was doing. "Small town police officer and new on the job. No one knew her well enough to tell that I'm not her. It turned out to be a perfect accident, really."

"You're a monster," Sam hissed at her, furious at the callous way she dismissed the death of the real Kelly Hendricks. 

"And you're not?" she returned slyly. "The only difference between you and me, little bird, is that Daddy loves you best." Sam cringed at that, thinking of all that he had learned recently. Maybe the Leviathans weren't as wrong as he had originally thought. Before he could even voice that thought someone came crashing in through the ceiling.

"Hey bitch," Dean said, and Sam had never been so happy to hear his brother's voice in his life. "Why don't you do yourself a favor and release my brother before you get hurt?"

"Oh I don't think so," the Leviathan sneered back at him, once again dumping the child's body. It hit the ground with a dull thump that made Sam flinch in his chains. "Baby brother is mine."

"Not a chance," Dean retorted, sword gleaming in his hands. Sam thrashed frantically in his bindings as the creature lunged at his brother. Pure panic, the type he hadn't felt since his years in Hell, poured over him, lending him desperate strength. The flavor or rotten oranges and burnt sugar poured over his tongue and he gagged at the taste. Power rushed under his skin, the kind he'd never felt before, and the chains exploded into twisted and jagged shards of metal that pounded into the walls.

" _No_ ," the Leviathan shrieked, throwing Dean aside and spinning toward him, hand already curving around the knife she had used to slit open those two little girls. Sam struggled to his knees and then his feet, acutely aware of the rush of his grace and the pounded of blood through his veins. The Leviathan lunged forward, red hair flaring wide across her face and jagged teeth bright in her mouth, and sliced with the knife. He stumbled back, made clumsy by the unfamiliar power, and the metal of the blade sliced deep into his stomach. He let out a pained cry as blood spurted from the wound and Dean growled.

The older angel scrambled to his feet, lunging as to his feet and propelling himself toward the Leviathan. Sam watched in horror, one palm stretching out either in warning or a vain attempt to stop her, as the knife spun with her momentum toward Dean's throat. Power roared in his ears and the smell of rotten meat joined the sour tastes in his mouth as a word burst free from his lips. It wasn't in any language Sam had ever heard, harsh and jagged and rasping free as if it would break his throat in two. The Leviathan exploded, black goo splattering against the walls and the knife flying by Dean's head to embed itself in the wall.

"Dude," Dean breathed as Sam wavered on his feet, suddenly exhausted as the strange power rushed away from him. "What was that?" The youngest archangel felt his shoulders hunch. Dean's expression softened some at Sam's obvious unease and he added, "Could you do that again?" This was one possible reaction that he hadn't considered from his siblings; that they would be excited about something like this.

"I, uh," he stammered, trying to find somewhere to look that wasn't coated in blood or Leviathan goo. "I don't know. It just sort of happened."

"Well it was awesome," Dean informed him, grinning and running a hand through goo covered blonde spikes. Sam smiled weakly and Dean's grin widened for a moment before he turned serious. "Samael."

"Yeah?" Sam asked warily.

"If you ever take off like that again, Dad help me I will track you down and stick your ass on lockdown. You understand me?"

"I understand you," Sam replied, feeling some of the tension leak away from his shoulders. The wound at his stomach twinged and he winced, glancing down at it. Some kind of black ooze dripped from it and Sam frowned at the sight. _Poison_. He'd known that the Leviathan's naturally secreted a type of venom to weaken their supernatural prey but he hadn't expected it to be on the knife or to slow down his healing process.

"Shouldn't that be fixed by now?" Dean inquired.

"There was some kind of poison on the knife," Sam replied, swaying again. "I think it is slowing the process down." Dean frowned and Sam felt the brush of his brother's grace across the wound. "Stop that," he grumbled. "I'm not a fledgling anymore."

"Then I would have thought you would have stopped running off and pouting like one," Dean retorted. Sam stretched out his grace in a quick snap that made Dean flinch, more startled than hurt, and then scowl. Sam wavered again and the scowl turned to concern. "Are you okay?"

"I," Sam said, his mouth suddenly feeling very dry. "I think I'm going to faint." His vision wavered as Dean gaped at him and his knees buckled suddenly. Dean was there in an instant, support him.

"Sam?" he heard his brother inquire worriedly, voice sounding as if it came down a very long tunnel. "Sammy?"

"D'n," Sam slurred, his eyes feeling too heavy to stay open.

"Sammy, stay with me," Dean demanded, his voice scared.

"Don' worry," Sam slurred, exhausted down to the core of his being. Then, just as he warned Dean earlier, he passed out.


	15. Slow Going

Lily really hated rush hour traffic. She and Jake were trapped in a traffic jam, some idiot had been watching a distant deer instead of the road and had rear ended the guy in front of him resulting in chaos, and the urge to punch something was strong. The radio had fizzled out to fuzz miles ago and had just been crackling along with occasional bits of talk show voices or songs. That hadn't bugged Lily while they'd been on the move but now it had her almost crawling out of her seat with irritation. Jake, on the other hand, was absolutely tranquil. That was also driving Lily absolutely nuts. "How can you be so calm at a time like this?" she snarled.

"At a time like what?" Jake asked curiously.

" _This_ ," she hissed at him, waving a hand toward the traffic.

"I take it you don't like traffic," he drawled with a slight smirk and she scowled at him.

"This really isn't funny Jake."

"Yes, actually, it is," came the reply. "You drive in traffic every day to get to work Lils."

"But I don't have to deal with morons who go ' _Ooh look a deer. Oh crap! There's a car in front of me!_ '" Jake dissolved into laughter and Lily glared helplessly at him, trying hard not to smile. 

"Come on Lily, it is a little funny."

"Okay, okay," she gave in, giggling. "I admit it. It is at least a tiny bit funny." She relaxed back into the seat, glancing casually in the rearview mirror. Then she frowned at the dark eyes she found staring back at her. At first she thought the teenage girl driving the crappy looking sedan was simply irritated about the traffic and life in general but the more she watched the more she became convinced that the girl was mad at her personally. She frowned, trying to place the face. She was youngish with long dark hair and equally dark colored eyes. She was wearing a tube top and a ratty looking denim jacket and big hoop earrings hung from her earlobes. She didn't remember anyone who looked like that but features could be changed. She chewed on her lower lip, contemplating the situation as Jake pulled some, traffic finally beginning to move, albeit slowly, once again.

"What's wrong Lily?" Jake asked, turning his head slightly to glance at her.

"I'm not sure," Lily replied, drumming her fingers on her knees. "Give me an hour and I'll let you know, okay?"

"Okay," Jake told her after a moment, turning back toward the crawling traffic before them. "But if you don't tell me what's going on in an hour we're pulling over. Deal?"

"Deal," Lily agreed, turning her head so she could keep track of the car and the glaring girl as they drove. "Not get moving Jake, before the people behind us decide to attempt to murder us because we're not moving. That would be very inconvenient." Jake chuckled and focused on driving, working on leaving this town behind.

\---

Anna Milton appeared to have the patience of a saint. Kali had been stuck with the other spirit in this dingy room for what might have been days now and the girl was furious. She was pacing down, dark hair swishing out behind her like a cape, while Anna sat cross legged on the floor watching her with calm eyes. "What?" Kali snapped at her finally, irritated.

"Nothing," Anna replied demurely.

"Obviously there's something because you keep looking at me," Kali growled.

"You are simply more interesting to watch than this room," Anna said with a shrug. "At least you are moving." Kali relented slightly and returned to pacing, bored and irritated. Each turn became sharper and sharper as she walked until she was pivoting on the spot and storming down the invisible line to pivot and stomp back, Anna's eyes following her the entire time.

\---

Becky was beginning to feel impatient. Several days had passed since the police had investigated Chuck's home and she had been told nothing. Her half-brother was missing, possibly dead, and the police department hadn't bothered to contact her and let her know whether they had any hope of finding him. Deciding she was tired of pacing the motel room, Becky became determined to return to Chuck's home. Even as she slid on her coat her long dead mother's voice hissed in her mind, saying " _Rebekka Rosen what do you think you're doing? This isn't one of your fairy tale worlds where everybody lives happily ever after. This is real life. Be sensible for once._ "

"Well what do you know?" Becky asked the empty motel room sharply. "You're dead." Then she grabbed her car keys and hurried out of the room. She made the drive in her rattling little Nova in silence, not feeling like flipping through radio stations to find something to listen to. She pulled up Chuck's long driveway and made her way to his front step, ignoring all the caution tape. The inside of the house looked much the same as if had the day she'd pushed the door open and found her half-brother missing, down to the bloodstain on the floor. 

Becky had called the investigator who had given her a phone number the next morning after the report only to be informed that the number was no longer in service. Then she'd gone to the police station only to find that the woman who'd given her the number had never worked there in the first place. Becky had gone back to the hotel room that night frustrated and confused and, despite her pestering, had learned nothing more during the wait between then and now. She walked carefully across the creaky floors, trying not to disturb any of the mess Chuck had left behind. She'd tried more than once to clean his mess of a house only to have him tell her, "Leave it. It isn't that important." He'd always sounded impatient, as if Becky were missing the grand scheme of things, and she'd always laughed even though the OCD that her mom had forced into her up until she'd died when Becky was twelve, right after she'd found out about Dad's affair and Chuck, had acted up just looking at all the piles of junk lying around. Now, thinking of those conversations, her eyes prickled with tears that she forced down. She wasn't here to cry.

She wound her way through the building, knowing almost as well as her tiny apartment back home which was small enough that if someone had long enough arms they could reach both walls with the palms of their hands in certain places. She'd been here a lot when Chuck had first bought the place close to two years ago but work had kept her away for the past nine months, something she now regretted. Sure they'd chatted every week by phone, they were closer than some half-siblings ever managed to be, but she hadn't seen him face to face for nine months.

She hesitated in the living room, staring at the stacks of papers that was probably Chuck's latest work. She picked up the nearest sheet, curious and wondering if it would give her any clues about where Chuck had gone. Instead her eyes widened in shock at the writing. _Becky stepped into the house, filled with determination to get to the bottom of this. She felt vaguely as if she'd been dumped into an old Scooby-Doo cartoon and that all the clues were there if she just looked. She made her way through the house, past the bloodstain-don't think too much about that, they said it wasn't enough to be deadly-, and to the living room where Chuck kept most of his papers. Maybe she could find a clue to what had happened to him in his scribbling. She picked up the first piece of paper she came across only to have her eyes widen in astonishment as she saw her own name._

Becky's grip loosened on the paper and she allowed it to flutter gently to the ground. What was going on here? How could Chuck know any of this? Then her eyes narrowed. This was some kind of a joke; had to be. There was no other explanation. "Chuck," she growled with irritation. "You had better come out right now or Heaven help me…" She couldn't think of anything suitably menacing to say, but then again Becky had never been good with threats.

"Hello Becky," a familiar voice said and she spun around, expecting to see Chuck standing there with a partially empty bottle in his hand. It wasn't that she expected him to have been drinking; she just rarely saw him without him carrying one around like a security blanket. Instead she saw nothing. Becky frowned, feeling uncertain. She wasn't sure what was going on at the moment but she didn't like it one bit.

"Come out," she demanded with more bravery than she actually felt. "This isn't funny." To her shock, her half-brother actually appeared out of thin air in the doorway, dressed in khaki pants and a white button up shirt. A tan dress jacket appeared draped over the back of the couch next to where Becky stood and he was fumbling with a matching brown tie. For a moment she gaped as he fumbled with it, words choking themselves out as she struggled to decide what to say first. Finally something escaped her mouth but it wasn't anything she had the urgent need to ask. Instead it was, "Oh you're hopeless." As if driven by some deeper instinct, she stepped forward and took the tie from his hand, tying it perfectly around his neck. If she happened to pull it a little too tight or make her motions a little too vicious, well that was Chuck's fault for scaring her like that and then appearing out of thin air. "Why are you dressed like that anyway? It looks ridiculous on you."

"Well apparently I have to convince the local police that I'm not dead and haven't been kidnapped," Chuck informed her. "It isn't as if I can simply make them forget the case. I can't mess with that. Free will, you know?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Becky replied. "But you owe me an explanation."

"I supposed I do," Chuck admitted almost sheepishly. "But there was so much going on at the time and I am not exactly accustomed to having a sister."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Becky asked, irritated. "We've known each other since we were twelve and thirteen."

"Becky I am older than the Earth itself," Chuck told her. "A little over ten years is a blink to me."

"Charles Jacob Shurley," Becky said sternly, forehead crinkling in confusion. "Are you trying to tell me that you're God?"

\---

The car was still following them. Initially Lily had managed to convince herself that she was just feeling paranoid after a Leviathan had broken into she and Jake's apartment and kidnapped her roommate and best friend. Now she knew that wasn't the case. "We're being followed," she told Jake in a low voice as the radio hissed with static, allowing an occasional word to slip through the buzzing mess. Dark purple thunderheads, like bruises painted on the sky, loomed before them and Lily could almost taste the rain in the air. She spent her summers at her grandparents large farm in Illinois until she was fifteen and she could tell, once away from the city fumes, when there was rain coming just by breathing in.

"By who?" Jake asked, his voice equally soft.

"The girl in the rust bucket of a sedan," Lily answered, frowning as thunder rumbled from not too far away. "She's been following us since the traffic jam. At first I thought I was just being paranoid but she's been keeping with us and she isn't exactly subtle."

"Do you want to confront her?"

"Not here," Lily returned immediately. "There's a rest stop up ahead. The rain should hit by the time we reach it which will give us the cover we need for our confrontation." Jake nodded, his eyes narrowed in concentration as they both watched the wall of rain advance towards them. It hit with surprised force, splattering over windows with a sound like hail hitting the ground. Jake's driving slowed as he struggled to see through the rain even with his supernatural sight. The human drivers were having a much worse time of it. Their vision wasn't near as good and they slowed to a crawl in an attempt to drive safely.

Finally Jake pulled into the rest stop, parking well away from the other cars that had decided to take refuge there when the storm hit. "Ready?" he asked Lily and nodded. Together they forced open the truck doors and stepped outside. Instantly Lily was drenched. Her hair plastered itself to her skull and neck, sticking there like it had been glued down. Her eyes strained through the downpour as she slowly made her way around the back of the truck to join Jake. The sedan that had been following them had parked on the other side of the lot and she could vaguely see a female shape approaching them.

"Demons." The oily tone of the female speaking to them made Lily bristle with anger. "So nice to meet you at last."

"Who are you?" Lily demanded as the rain began to slowly taper off. "Why are you following us?" The creature glanced over her shoulder, almost nervously, and then turned back to Lily with a pitying smile.

"I know you won't believe this but I really am sorry for what I am about to do." Lily opened her mouth to ask what the creature was talking about when it moved. One moment the girl was standing across from Lily and in the next she was gone. Lily turned to ask Jake what was happening only to see him crumple to the ground. She opened her mouth to let out a startled cry as a dark blur jumped toward her. Then something smacked her harshly over the head and she too tumbled toward the ground.

\---

Chuck shifted awkwardly where he stood, looking as if he weren't quite sure what to say. "Chuck," Becky prodded, gentling her tone. "Just tell me, please." She could see the instant he caved, his expression smoothing out.

"Yes," he told her. "I am telling you that." That was not the answer Becky had expected. She sputtered helplessly, unsure what to say, and Chuck smiled gently at her. "I didn't realize it until about a year ago. I'd buried it so deeply when I decided to reside on Earth and give my children a chance to grow up that I forgot who I was." He smiled fondly at some memory and added, "Death came at the start of this whole mess to ensure that I remembered who I was. He always did worry like that when Samael was involved."

"You're serious, aren't you?" Becky asked with what tried to be a disbelieving laugh but failed. "This is ridiculous."

"What makes it so ridiculous?" Chuck asked curiously.

"God is my geeky, alcohol loving brother," Becky shot back. "What part of this isn't ridiculous?"

"Drinking in moderation is not a sin," Chuck replied levelly.

"What about the time your friend called me to come pick you up from the bar when you turned twenty-one because you were drunk and dancing on the tables?"

"I..uh…" Chuck rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, a motion Becky had grown very familiar with over the years. "I might not have exactly been drunk like you all assumed."

"I don't know if that makes that night better or worse," Becky groaned. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "So first we have to go to the police station and convince everyone that this was just a big mistake. Then what do we do?"

Chuck smiled brightly when Becky said we, as if it were more than he could have ever hoped for. "Then we have some of my children to track down."

"Okay," Becky said, waving the keys to her Nova in Chuck's face with a cheerful smile. "Let's get going before we run out of daylight."

\---

When the door to their prison creaked open, Anna and Kali were floating cross legged just above the floor playing tic-tac-toe on the dust on the floor. It had taken a few tries for them to figure out how to manipulate the world around them and now they played smoothly, without pause. What looked like a man with hair that was more brown than blonde stepped into the room and studied them with confusion evident in every line of his posture. "What are you doing?" he asked, puzzled.

"How long's it been since you've been on earth flyboy?" Kali asked with a derisive snort. "Because I'm pretty sure there was some version in the Roman Empire."

"There was one in ancient Egypt too," Anna added absently as she won her third game in a row.

"Damn," Kali grumbled, irritated, as she placed another tally mark next to Anna's name and drew another board. "How are you doing that?"

"Ordinarily I would point out that I am an angel and therefore have superior intelligence but I haven't been an angel for a long time and angelic intelligence has nothing to do with tick-tac-toe," Anna replied. "Therefore I'll just stick with beginner's luck." Kali wrinkled her nose in disgust but didn't comment as she carefully laid down her first X. The angel watched them for several moments without comment before shaking his head and leaving them to their game. As soon as he was gone Anna's eyes narrowed, locked on the door behind Kali. "That isn't a grace I've seen free for a long time," the former angel said.

"Is that a good thing or a bad one?" Kali asked curiously as Anna carefully laid down her first O.

"It could go either way," Anna said, her tone contemplative as Kali studied to board. "Politics in Heaven tend to be a lot like a complicated game of chess. You never know exactly what move someone is going to make until they've already made it. And Gadreel has always been clever."

"Hmm," Kali hummed in response, placing another X before smiling beatifically at Anna. "Your turn."


	16. The Father, The Brother, and The Monster

Sam's head throbbed. That was the first thing he became aware of when he roused himself. The second was his older brother's voice chanting his name frantically near his left ear. "D'n," he managed to slur out, shoving himself painfully towards full awareness, and he got a sigh of relief in response.

" _Sammy_." His name was said with a mixture of pure relief and helpless irritation, the reaction of an older brother who'd just seen his younger sibling do something stupid that had almost killed him and was dealing with the rush of emotions that followed. Sam forced his eyes open to see the blurry shape of his brother leaning over him. "Are you okay?"

"Think so," Sam mumbled with some difficulty. "Jus' tired."

"Okay," Dean replied, voice thick with relief. "Okay. You rest little brother. We'll talk when you wake up." Sam drifted back into sleep without any conscious effort. His dreams were full of blood and pain with a bright, white light waiting for him in the distance.

\---

The drive to the local police station was awkward, to say the least. Becky was very conscious that she had God in the passenger seat, although that didn't stop her from speeding a bit like she usually did. No, it just made it awkward to start a conversation with him. All her life, Chuck had just been nerdy bookworm Chuck who had loved watching all the old _Star Trek_ episodes with Becky and geeking out about how awesome the special effects in the original _Star Wars_ trilogy had been for the time it had been created. For Halloween they'd always wore corresponding costumes, their best ones being Batman and Robin the last year they went trick or treating. Now Chuck was God and Becky felt as if her whole world had been turned on its head.

"So what's being God like?" she asked at last, desperate to break the tense silence hanging between them.

"Irritating beyond belief most days," Chuck said and then looked startled about what had come out of his mouth. Becky giggled. "I mean, I love you all but humans do the most confusing and contradictory things with their free will sometimes and one of my more reasonable children out of the angels started an apocalypse to try and bring me home."

"Is that the angelic equivalent of throwing a temper tantrum or sending out a distress signal?" Becky asked, curious, as she pulled into the police department parking lot.

"Temper tantrum," Chuck replied immediately as she parked the Nova. "Definitely."

Explaining things to the police department turned out to be even more awkward than the drive there. Chuck, as it happened, wasn't great with explanations and Becky finally threw in that he'd been away on an unexpected business trip. Chuck had shot her a sidelong, amused glance but the secretary stopped looking at them as if they'd lost it and nodded as if it were a logical conclusion. The blood, Becky had continued to explain, had been from a co-worker who'd accidentally injured himself and hit it against something unexpectedly, bleeding through the bindings. The secretary had given them the correct paperwork to clear the case and a half an hour later they were back in Becky's car.

"Only you," Chuck said with a fond smile. "Would turn my return to Heaven into an unexpected business trip."

"Well it was technically the truth," Becky shot back with a cheeky grin. Chuck sighed but he looked amused which only made Becky's grin widen. "Now where are we headed?" she asked, buckling her seatbelt and turning the key in the ignition. 

"Sioux Falls, South Dakota," Chuck replied. "You get us there and I'll direct you the rest of the way, yeah?"

"Yeah," Becky agreed, carefully pulling out onto the road before beginning to fish for a good radio station. The drive to Sioux Falls from here was a long one and Becky was not going to make it there without some music.

\---

Dean was worried. Angels didn't normally need to sleep and the fact that Sam had used up enough raw power to warrant genuine rest was worrying. As an archangel, Sam had more power than almost every other member of the Host and he knew how to use it. That meant that, past a few antics when he was still a fledgling, Sam had mostly avoided pushing himself to the point of exhaustion. Now Dean watched his little brother slumber restlessly, he worried.

He resisted the urge to pace, just barely, because he didn't want to suddenly wake his slumbering sibling. Sam shifted, whimpering softly in his sleep, and Dean was abruptly reminded of a tiny lost fledgling who'd wandered away when one of his brother's wasn't watching. He'd kept watch over Sam while Balthazar had gone to find Michael or Lucifer. Now, centuries later, he was still watching over his little brother and Sam was getting into just as much trouble by accident now as he had then. Some things didn't change. Some things, admittedly, did. Sam's new powers were mildly worrying. The fact that they came from Dad should have reassured Dean but he knew that all gifts from their father involved consequences. Case in point; the Messiah.

Jesus may have been the Son of God by he had also been brutally executed by the people he came to save. It had been a tragic day in Heaven when that had happened despite the fact that they knew it was necessary. Lucifer and Gadreel introducing sin into the world had made it difficult for humans to reach Heaven. The sacrifice made by the Son of God had allowed humans to reach Heaven by praying for forgiveness but it had been a painful sacrifice to observe. Directly after the Fall, Gabriel had been gifted with the Horn of Judgment Day by their father but had been told that blowing it would herald the End of Days. Gabriel had ultimately decided to hide the Horn where no one but him should be able to find it. Now Dean had discovered that his little brother had been given a gift to destroy the Leviathans he was worried. Worried that using this gift would ultimately lead to his little brother's death.

"You're thinking too hard." Sam's voice was a tired slur but his eyes were open and clear. "Where are we?"

"Upstairs in the Levi's borrowed house. I didn't want move you too far unless I had to," he admitted and Sam smiled at him, sitting up slowly.

"We need to get out of here," Sam said, trying to push himself up.

"Whoa there tiger," Dean said, pushing him back down. "You're not back up to full power yet."

"We can't stay here," Sam protested. "Sooner or later one of the Leviathans will wonder why this ritual didn't accomplish what it was intended to and if we're still here when they arrive we'll be doomed."

"Okay then," Dean said, grudgingly able to admit that his little brother was right. "But we're going to have to drive."

"Don't care," Sam retorted, stubbornly keeping his eyes open. "We need to go." Dean nodded, gritted his teeth, and helped his brother off the bed. It was going to be a long and painfully slow walk to the garage where hopefully the Leviathan kept the car. Then he had to figure out how to drive one. "Fuck," Dean muttered eloquently and Sam giggled, slightly punch drunk. "Keep moving little brother. We've got a ways to go."

\---

Lily didn't need to breathe anymore. Her heart didn't have to beat, blood didn't have to move through veins, and her thought process no longer had anything to do with her brain. That didn't mean that her head didn't throb when she roused from unconsciousness. "Did you get the number of the truck that ran over me?" she slurred as she tried to force heavy eyelids open.

"Sorry about that." The voice was feminine and unfamiliar, enough to force Lily into full alertness. Her eyes snapped open and she found herself looking at a girl who could have easily passed for Faith Lehane during one of the character's first episodes of _Buffy_. "I did not intend to hit you quite so hard."

"Who are you?" Lily demanded fiercely. "And what do you want?"

"I don't have a name," came the simple reply. "I never have and I probably never will. And I need your help."

"What are you?" Lily demanded, her brain screaming danger at full volume.

"I'm a Leviathan," the girl said and Lily's eyes widened. "But I'm not one of them," she added quickly. "I'm different; I promise."

"What makes you so different?" Jake rasped from where he was also tied up. 

"I don't know," the Leviathan replied. "I just am." She glanced around nervously and then turned to look at them again. "A while ago I got separated from my brothers and sisters. I found a vampire named Leonore in the depths of Purgatory. She saved my life and then my siblings destroyed her." The Leviathan's fingers clenched and her eyes were wide and angry. "I hate them for it."

"And that makes you different _how_?" Jake demanded.

"My siblings can feel no love for anyone but themselves. They do not understand the pain of losing someone outside themselves and they do not understand why I hate them. In fact, because of my differences they have attempted to destroy me more than once."

"You're saying the because you can love something outside of yourself you are different?" Jake asked with a snort. "Even demons can do that."

"I think she means because she has compassion," Lily cut in. The Leviathan nodded hesitantly, mouthing the word compassion as if it were a new word.

"I think, maybe…" she said uncertainly.

"Compassion is the ability to be concerned for others who are suffering," Lily said and the Leviathan's expression lightened.

"Yes," she replied simply. "My siblings care for nothing outside themselves because to them, we are all extensions of the same being, not individuals. My difference from them was seen as a betrayal because I was making myself into an individual."

"So what do you need our help with?" Lily asked and the Leviathan smiled. 

"I need you to help me kill my siblings."

\---

Dean was mystified by the inner workings of the car. He hadn't said anything but Sam could tell his older brother had no idea what he was doing. Sam had driven before, several times in fact, and so he at least had a good idea of what he was doing. He reached out with a weak hand to pass the knowledge over to his brother. "You should be resting, not using your grace," he chided but he started the car all the same.

"Can't avoid using my grace if they catch up to us," Sam rasped and his brother side. 

"Where are we going Sammy?"

"South." Sam's voice was barely a whisper but it was certain. "We go south."

"Okay," Dean replied easily, his expression concerned when he glanced over at Sam as he pulled on to the road. "Rest little brother. I'll wake you when we stop." Sam wanted to reassure his brother that he would be fine but sleep was tugging at him and he had no energy to fight it. He let it pull him under and the last thing he saw before he closed his eyes was Dean reaching for the radio dial.


	17. Daddy's Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, this is the last of the chapters I have fully written so Monday's update will probably be late in the afternoon instead of in the morning. Also, it's really hard to write a story without a huge Deus ex Machina with God involved in the entire plot.

Castiel's strength returned to him more quickly every day and by this point he could stand under his own power. He was roaming the house, relieved to be able to move, when the clunky Nova pulled into Bobby Singer's driveway. He tensed, wondering if a Leviathan had managed to slip past Balthazar and Alastair, who were walking the perimeter. Then the passenger door opened and God stepped out of the car. Cas let out a sigh of relief and headed for the door, flipped the locks and pulling back to bolt. A young woman stepped out of the driver's side, her brown hair pulled in a messy ponytail and her eyes curious as she glanced at her surroundings.

Castiel stepped out onto the porch and her eyes widened as she took him in. She took a deep breath, smoothed her hands down her side, and turned to look at God, who was wearing the form of Chuck. "Okay, so you weren't kidding."

"You doubted me?" he asked, amused.

"It was a lot to take in, okay?" she retorted, sounding exasperated. "And I thought you might have been joking about some of it."

"Would I do something like that?"

"You filled my shampoo bottle with whipped cream the day of Freshman school pictures," the woman replied. "Excuse me if I don't exactly find that below you." Chuck chuckled and Cas found himself stopped halfway out of the door, bemused.

"Hello Castiel," Chuck said.

"Father," he replied, dipping his head slightly in acknowledgement.

"Hello," the woman said, waving and smiling brightly at him. "I'm Becky Rosen."

"Umm," was all Castiel managed to get out before Becky practically bounced up the steps to hug him. He stood there stiffly until she pulled back, unsure what was going on. By that time Jess had made her way to the door and was standing behind him. He shot her a bemused glance and she shrugged at him. The angel then reached a tendril of grace out towards Michael, hoping the archangel would have an explanation for what was going on here.

"Do you mind if we come in?" Chuck asked cordially. Silently Jess and Castiel stepped aside, allowing the two of them to enter Bobby Singer's home.

\---

Michael wasn't sure what he had expected to see when he answered Castiel's summons but it certainly wasn't his father sitting at Bobby Singer's couch with a young woman with long brown hair, bright eyes, and an equally bright smile. He glanced at Castiel who was staring at him with wide, hopeless blue eyes as if he had landed in Wonderland and wasn't exactly certain how he'd gotten there. Michael definitely sympathized.

Gabriel had trailed in behind him and when Michael glanced over his shoulder his brother looked equally bemused. "Hello father," Michael greeted and Chuck smiled at him. "Why are you here?"

"For several reasons," Chuck replied. "The first of which being that my sister here happened to call the police when she came to visit, saw no one at home, and found blood." _Sister?_ Michael glanced at Gabriel again, who shrugged at him.

"And the others?" Gabriel asked curiously.

"I have some matters I need to discuss with several of you," Chuck said solemnly. "Individually." Michael nodded solemnly, worry churning in his stomach like a sickness. "Meg first," Chuck continued and Michael nodded in acknowledgement and guided Gabriel away from the room, Castiel following Michael and the young woman trailing after him like a lost puppy.

Meg was in Bobby's kitchen with Jess and Lisa backing something. The three of them were chatting but Meg's smile was forced and Jess's movements were jerky. Lisa seemed to be trying to hold them together with cookies. "Meg," Cas said and she glanced up, managing a more genuine smile for him.

"What is it Feathers?" Castiel shuffled awkwardly where he stood and she sighed. "Come on, spill the beans already."

"God wants to talk to you," Cas blurted out and Meg stared at him as if he'd just grown a second head.

"I beg your pardon."

"God's sitting in the living room and he wants to talk to you sweetheart," Gabriel spoke up. Meg glared at him and stomped by him with a huff, heading for the living room. Cas shot a disapproving look towards Gabriel who grinned at asked, "What?" Cas just rolled his eyes and headed for another room.

\---

Meg wasn't entirely certain what she had expected when she stepped into the living room but God sitting there in the guise of the unassuming author Chuck Shurley had not been it. She had expected power and glory, not a mousy looking man flipping through one of the lore books Lucifer had left lying around. "Hello Meg," he greeted her and she nodded hesitantly in response. "Take a seat please." She sank down in an old armchair, papers scattering about her feet like fallen leaves. He shoved the book away from him. "Meg, daughter of Azazel, you have redeemed yourself," he told her, meeting her eyes solidly. "Today I return to you your old form and return you to your former state. Upon the time of your death you will ascend to Heaven and join the ranks of the host if you so choose."

Meg gasped as a wash of warm power rush underneath her skin. It felt pleasant, like cool rain on a hot summer day or warm hot chocolate after walking through a snowstorm. She felt the body of human she had been possessing be whisked away and found herself standing in her old frame. Brunette curls felt to her breasts and the clothes she was wearing were suddenly hundreds of years out of style. She didn't care. She was no longer a demon, no longer on Hell's payroll. She no longer belonged to a place that had so utterly destroyed Sam that he thought himself worthless. She smiled, wide and wondering, and Chuck smiled with her.

"Welcome to the family Meg," he told her, a hint of amusement in his gaze. "Now would you do me a favor and bring Alastair in?"

"Of course," she replied, almost breathlessly. Then she hurried out of the room, still feeling overwhelmed. Her heart beat steadily in her chest as she made her way towards the perimeter, reaching out to locate Alastair in a way she hadn't needed to for centuries. The power, more angelic than demonic, stretched out like a banner of warmth in her chest. She sighed at it, located Alastair familiar dark signature, and grinned. He was in for the surprise of his life.

She practically skipped her way into the woods, humming cheerfully under her breath. The tune was both haunting and longing and it made her think of Sam with those soulful hazel eyes that sometimes flash with a hint of that true angelic blue, the heaviness he always carried around with him, and all the brilliant grace. It made her want to smile and cry at the same time and she cheerfully cursed the returned full range of emotions that came with her transition.

She made her way stealthily towards the demon and angel who were on the lookout for Leviathans, and Gabriel's ridiculous traps. She'd always been sneaky as a child, eavesdropping and getting the jump on her brother before he'd become all twisted and wrong. Now she could put those skills to good use. "Good morning boys," she sang out from behind them and they both jumped, whirling around to look at her. She giggled and Balthazar gaped, staring at her with stunned eyes. Alastair, in contrast, smiled.

"Good morning Hosanna."

"Meg," she corrected with a roll of her eyes. "I'm Meg now. That part isn't changing." She bounced a couple times and then added, "There's someone in Bobby's living room that wants to see you. I'll stay with Balthazar." Alastair nodded and slipped by her, squeezing her shoulder lightly before he made his way fluidly out of sight. Meg watched him go with a grin, wondering what he'd look like all fixed up and glowing with grace.

\---

Alastair had never been particularly respectful so Chuck could not rightly say he was surprised when the former angel stepped briskly into the room and said, "What do you want?" A long time ago he'd created this particularly blunt angel and he had yet to regret it. Alastair had chosen twisted and difficult paths but in the end he had risked everything to protect Samael, had turned his back on all the darkness he had stood for, and came out a better man than Chuck could have ever hoped for his fallen son.

"I have something for you," he told the demon, reaching into the pocket of his jacket and withdrawing a shimmering silver vial. "Something you turned your back on a long time ago." Alastair's eyes were filled with longing as he stared at the glimmering light of pure grace. "I think it's about time that you took this back, don't you?" Alastair hesitated, just as Chuck knew he would, and then gently took the vial from his hands. The former angel held it delicately, as if it were something precious, and it shimmered and swirled in response to his closeness. "You might want to take that outside so you don't destroy Mr. Singer's home," Chuck suggested with a smile. Alastair's smile was equally bright as he headed for the door. Moments later a blazing flash of light and power swelled over the yard, drawing every single member of this strange little family to where Alastair stood.

\---

Michael wasn't sure what he had expected when his father had insisted on seeing the two demons who had been around Sam see him first but this was definitely a pleasant surprise. Meg was nephilim, pure and untouched by evil and gleaming brightly with dark curls brushed out of her face and brilliant brown eyes. Alastair was something else entirely. The demon had been returned to his angelic state, all fierce grace burning under human skin. Michael vaguely remembered him from before the fall, blunt and constantly calm with a hint of hidden compassion and amusement about existence in general that even the toughest fight with a Leviathan couldn't destroy, and this angel had all of that but he had also changed.

Alastair's wings were no longer the pale silver and grey they'd been before. Instead they were red and black, marked by his time in Hell but still as amazing to look at as ever. "Nice," Meg said, whistling under her breath. "All powered up and ready to go angel boy?" Alastair snorted at that and Meg snickered.

"I'm beginning to understand why Sam was so irritated by everyone insisting on calling him an angel," the former demon drawled and Meg smirked at him.

"You'll have to get used to it by the look of things," Jess chimed in cheerfully. "Because I don't think those wings are going away any time soon."

"Michael," a voice called and the archangel turned to see his father standing in the doorway. "If I could speak to you for a moment it would be very helpful."

"Of course," he replied immediately, following the form of Chuck Shurley into the house.

"I am afraid I have some bad news for you Michael," he said. "I know your loyalty lies with Heaven and I am not questioning this but I am questioning your sense of duty. You see, I placed you as Heaven's commander but despite holding that position you neglect your duties to remain on earth."

"The Leviathans are a serious threat," Michael protested. "It is only natural that I address such a threat."

"I understand my son and I am not belittling your ability as a commander. I am simply telling you that Heaven needs you."

"What are you asking from me?"

"I am requesting that you return home."

"What about Sam and Dean," Michael said hesitantly. "Sam is missing and Dean is searching for him alone. With the Leviathans out for revenge would it not be safer to remain here until they are safe once more."

"I am afraid that no one will be entirely safe until the Leviathans are dealt with," Chuck replied gravely. "But I promise you that Samael and Dumah have the ability to deal with the Leviathans. They will be safe." It was the hardest thing Michael had ever done to agree.


	18. Moves and Countermoves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, just a warning, this is kind of a weird chapter. Also there's a new character introduced (and if you've read Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett then you should be able to guess by the end of the chapter who it is) but he won't be named officially until the nest chapter. Enjoy (hopefully)!

Dean got a handle of driving fairly quickly, thanks to Sam's memories and long hours behind the wheel while his little brother slept off his Leviathan destroying induced exhaustion in the passenger seat. He had to admit that the further he got from the home where he'd discovered the Leviathan and Sam the more relaxed he felt, as if something slimy were being washed off of his skin. Sam slept restlessly, shifting and whimpering softly every so often as classic rock hummed from the radio.

They were heading south, as per Sam's suggestion before he'd sunk into sleep, but not with a specific destination in mind. Maybe Sam knew exactly where they were going but Dean was reluctant to wake his brother to find out. Sam groaned then, eyes fluttering open. "And Sleeping Beauty awakens," Dean teased and got an irritated groan for his efforts. "So where are we headed Sammy? Besides south I mean."

"Savannah," Sam croaked out and gratefully accepted the bottle of water Dean handed over, taking a few swallows.

"Georgia or the African desert," Dean asked curiously which earned him an irritated look.

"We can't drive from here to Africa Dean."

"So Georgia it is," Dean replied cheerfully, undaunted by his younger sibling's annoyance. "Any particular reason why or did you just pick any old place out of your head?"

"There's a bookshop there," Sam explained. "It used to belong to an angel but…" Dean watched as his little brother winced and trailed off. "Anyway, there's someone there that might be able to help us." Dean wanted to push more, to demand the full story of what was in Savannah, but he recognized the pained look on Sam's face. He'd seen it too many times in recent years and the last thing he wanted to do was force Sam to focus on more old wounds.

"Okay," he said easily. "I'll get us to Savannah and then you can direct us from there. Deal?"

"Deal," Sam replied with a grin, settling back into the seat. Dean grinned back at his brother and cranked up the music, smirking widely at Sam's irritated frown. Sam reached for the volume control but Dean easily batted his hand away.

"Uh-uh little brother. Driver picks the music and shotgun shuts his cakehole."

"Says who?" Sam demanded indignantly.

"Me," Dean replied with a wide smirk that did nothing to appease his little brother and turned back to the road. Savannah, Georgia, here they came.

\---

Jess was mildly surprised to find herself approached by God. She was sitting on the front step after Michael's abrupt vanishing act, with no explanation other than the sentence that Heaven needed him. "Can I help you?" she asked politely.

"I was hoping I could talk to you," he said and she smiled.

"Of course. Take a seat." She patted the step next to her and he settled down next to her. "What can I help you with?"

"I have something to ask of you Jessica," God said. "And I feel terrible about asking this but it is necessary."

"What is it?"

"One of my sons, Gadreel, has taken a soul from Heaven and resurrected the soul of an angel turned human. I need you and Balthazar to search him out. After that point, I will personally purify your soul and escort you to Heaven."

"That is more than I could have ever asked for," Jess informed him. "And I will do my best to see this through to the end."

"I know that child," God said. "And that is all I can ask for. I will send Balthazar to you." Then he stood and left her alone on the front porch." She waited patiently and five minutes later Balthazar walked around the house with a bemused look on his face. He smiled at her dazedly and offered her his arm.

"Ready to go darling?"

"Ready whenever you are sweetheart," Jess replied with her eyes sparkling. She took his arm and a moment later they were gone.

\---

Savannah, Georgia was warm, even during the late fall months, and busy. Of course it was a historical city so tourists and tour buses were everywhere. Sam had Dean pay to park the car in a parking garage and they walked, slowly because Sam was still recovering his strength. "What are we looking for?" Dean asked, keeping close to his little brother in case Sam's legs betrayed him. Sam was pretty steady at the moment but Dean had never seen an archangel exert himself to exhaustion before and didn't know how fast his little brother would recover.

"There's a bookstore," Sam said dryly. "I told you this earlier."

"And why, in our father's name, are we going to a bookstore?"

"There's no need to bring Dad into this."

" _Sa-am_."

"Okay, okay. I'm getting there. There's an old friend running it that might help us. Maybe." Sam sounded a little uncertain at the end and Dean wondered what the story behind that was. Sam turned left down a little side street and there, tucked away from the hustle and the bustle of the city, was an old looking bookshop. The paint on the sign was peeling and the window was a little murky with grime, like something out of a historical TV program. Through the window they could see crooked shelves filled with tome after ancient tome. It looked exactly like the kind of place a much younger Samael could have spent centuries inside.

Sam reached out and turned the handle. A bell tinkled dustily above them as they entered the dimly lit building and the temperature dropped at least ten degrees. For a moment they saw no one. Then, as if by some kind of sinister magic, a short man with close cropped dark hair in a tailored suit stepped out of the shadows. "Samael." His voice was ice and Sam flinched at the tone, shoulders hunching defensively. Dean stepped up close to his brother's right, ready to interfere at a moment's notice.

"I wouldn't have come if it wasn't a matter of utmost importance." The demon, because Dean could see what lurked beneath the human skin, studied Sam for a moment and then nodded.

"Fine. Come in." Dean glanced at Sam but his little brother was already following the demon into the back room. Dean hesitated a moment and then followed them. The back room was as dimly lit as the front of the store and much more cluttered. He thought he could see a coffee table buried under books and papers. Sam glanced around with a sad look in his eyes but the demon was watching him with barely concealed hatred. Some friend. "What's the problem?" the demon snapped.

"The Leviathans," Sam said grimly, looking the demon in the eyes. "They've been freed."

"I shouldn't have let you in here," the demon snarled. "Always bringing deadly trouble to my doorstep. First you got _him_ killed and now this." Sam's whole body drooped and he appeared stricken.

"I'm sorry. I didn't-"

"Didn't think? Didn't mean to?" the demon jeered. "It doesn't matter. You've already done the damage."

"You're right," Sam said tiredly. "Come on Dean. We need to go." Dean wanted terribly to making the depression he saw in his little brother's face go away but he didn't know how. Instead he turned and followed Sam out of the shop.

\---

Madison could feel herself slowly growing more alert. Whatever had kidnapped her had kept her drugged for days on end, leaving her weak and woozy, but now she could feel the full moon approaching. With each passing day it loomed nearer and she found the drugs affecting her less and less. That meant she had to pretend, had to act like she was weak and confused. Silently she catalogued her symptoms, counted down the days, and planned. On the night of the full moon these creatures had best watch out, because come Hell or high water Madison Keller was getting out of here.

\---

Outside on the street, a storm was brewing. Cool wind rushed across Sam's skin but he barely felt it. He was surrounded by a cloud of shame. "He was wrong." Dean's voice startled Sam and he turned to look at his brother. "You would have never brought anything to anyone that you hadn't thought they could handle." That, in truth, was the root of this problem. Sam had still been young and a little naïve. He had thought that Aziraphale would be able to handle the coming storm. Instead the older angel had been killed, causing the rift between Sam and the demon in the shop.

"It doesn't matter," he informed Dean, smiling sadly at his brother. "Demons don't see in shades of grey and, for that matter, neither do most angels." 

"That doesn't mean they shouldn't." Dean looked as if he would have liked to pulverize anyone who had ever injured Sam and while the sentiment was touching it wouldn't help them.

"Come on Dean. Let's go."

"Yeah," Dean replied. "Okay." They stepped around the corner completely in synch, and directly into trouble.

\---

Somewhere, locked away in their ancient prison, Anna and Kali played chess. It was Kali's first time at the game, made even more complicated by the fact that they didn't have a real board and had to draw things out in the dust, and she struggled with it. Anna excelled, each more having a purpose. "This game is an awful lot like my father's plans," Anna said after one particularly frustrating game. "Each move we make is all part of a grander plan. We may think we are nothing important, merely a pawn in a giant game of chance, but he always has a greater purpose in mind."

"I heard once, from a demon, that God played dice with the universe," Kali commented absently as they erased the board and started again.

"That is a terrible, terrible lie," Anna said solemnly. "We are too important for God to play dice with our lives." Then she paused, tilting her head and grinning, "Besides, who would play dice with someone who already knows the outcome of the game?" The two laughed and turned back to their game, neither one aware the someone was watching them the entire time.


	19. The World's Fair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is way, way later than it should have been and I apologize for that. Also, I may be down to posting just one chapter a week, but I'm not sure yet so I'll let you all know on Monday. Thanks for your patience and enjoy!

In the year 2003, a man by the name of Erik Larson published a book entitled _The Devil in the White City_. The novel was about the world's first document serial killer, a man by the name of Herman Webster Mudgett. He was more commonly known as Dr. H. H. Holmes. Holmes built a hotel for the world's fair, lured women in, and brutally murdered them. He confessed, after he was caught, to twenty-seven murders but it has long been suspected that his total was close to two hundred. What none of the experts knew, was that Holmes was looking to add to his body count. 

Holmes had been sentenced to death by hanging which was carried out in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Years later, the prison was destroyed and an apartment complex was built over it. All was well for a few years, then young women began to vanish mysteriously from their rooms and reappear, brutally murdered, in strange places days later. Eventually the apartment complex was abandoned and had remained so until the recently escaped angel, Gadreel, needed a place to hide two spirits, one summoned with dark magic from nonexistence. What he wasn't aware of, was the fact that there were not two spirits in the building but three. And all of them were plotting something.

\---

It had been a long time since Meg had been anything near human so she had forgotten a lot. One of the most important things she'd forgotten was what true worry felt like. It was as if someone had dumped a ball of lead into her stomach and left it to churn there. It made her antsy and irritated. It made her sick to her stomach. The house was slowly emptying out as God spoke to one person at a time. First Sam and Dean had left to who knows where, then Michael had returned to Heaven, and now Balthazar and Jess had been sent on a secret mission. That left Meg behind to worry.

She paced through the salvage yard, wondering absently if her hellhounds would answer to her now, when she heard a rustling. Her eyes narrowed and she turned toward the woods, body bowstring tense. She wished for a weapon for a moment, then realized she had one. A natural one. She smirked and headed for the woods. 

"Come out, come out where ever you are," she crooned. There was another rustling and then a little kid wandered into view. He looked dirty a frightened and she felt a pang of sympathy before she saw the teeth. They were like needles, made to sink into flesh and draw blood. " _Leviathan_ ," she hissed and the creature laughed, a jagged barking sound. Meg's fingers blazed and the two clashed.

The Leviathan was strong, stronger than anything had a right to be, but Meg had fought against beings stronger than her for years. She bent and flexed and twisted and, although the Leviathan's current body was smaller than her it fought as if it were larger. Meg recognized the problem. More than one demon had struggled with coming topside only to end up in a body much smaller than they were accustomed too. It threw them off, made them vulnerable. 

She could hear a rustling behind them but she ignored it, focusing all her attention on the creature in front of her. If that was another Leviathan she was dead but she couldn't afford to lose her focus now. "Die," the creature hissed at her, expression utterly frustrated.

"Not a chance," Meg snarled back. That was when, almost as if it had received and cue, a sword stabbed through the middle of the Leviathan's chest. The creature's mouth gaped open and Lucifer pulled his sword free before stabbing it in again. The Leviathan fell limp to the ground, body hollow and slowly dissolving into black sludge. "Thanks," she panted out and Lucifer grinned at her.

"No problem," he said. "Besides, I need you around. I have a job for you."

\---

The Leviathans were waiting for the two brothers with sinister grins on their faces. Sam braced himself beside his brother, waiting for the blow to fall. They didn't have to wait long. The two Leviathans, looking like a pair of red headed male twins with more freckles than face, lunged, sending the two angels stumbling down. Sam found himself overwhelmed by the scent of rotten oranges. He thrashed with a disgusted cry, power rushing into him, and the Leviathan had time to widen his eyes before he exploded.

The one fighting Dean exploded as well, with a hollow popping sound like someone stamping on a balloon. The world in Sam's vision began to swirl around him. "Sammy?" he heard Dean asking as if from very far away. He opened his mouth to answer and a low, cracked moan sprung forth from his mouth instead. Then black began shimmering across his vision and the world faded away.

\---

Kali was the first one to sense that they were being watched. Anna was absorbed in the symbols she was inscribing in the dust at their feet when Kali felt eyes settle on her. She shivered, sensing something dark and cold, and her hands clenched into fists. "Anna," she hissed meaningfully and the former angel glanced up at her. The red head's eyes narrowed and she stood smoothly, frowning into the dim shadows of their current home.

"You may as well come out," she said grimly. "We know you are here."

"It is a pleasure to meet two such beautiful ladies," a slimy voice said, seeming to issue from everywhere at once. "It's a pity neither one of you are blonde."

\---

Dean's mind swirled with panic. He had just gotten his little brother back to almost full health when the Leviathan's had to show up again. They had been unexpected and Sam had lashed out. Now they lay in puddles of black goo and Sam was so far into passed out that he had forgotten to breathe. "Come on Sammy," he pleaded, not caring that he was covered in monster goo as long as his little brother was okay. He ran a hand through black coated hair and smiled weakly. "You've got to get up and save more people dude. Can't just keep lying there." That was a low blow, he knew. Sam had saved so many people while on the run from Heaven and Hell, touched so many lives, that the numbers were outright astounding. Sam would do nearly anything to save people from death and pain and it made his brother a truly unique creature.

Sam didn't stir, oblivious to his pleading. The rapidly racing heartbeat, struggling to gain enough oxygen from lungs that were no long inflating, was slowing down. Becoming sluggish. Dean felt hopelessness wash through him. Sam was deeply connected to this vessel, every pore and blood vessel singing of the archangel's grace and power. If the vessel died then so was Sam. "Sammy please," he begged, shaking his brother lightly.

"Oh move out of the way," a voice snapped and Dean was shoved aside by the demon from the shop who smacked Sam hard on the center of the chest. Sam gasped, choked, and his whole body tried to fold up for a moment before he was breathing again. "Help me get him inside."

Dean did as he was told, stunned. The two lugged his once again breathing brother back into the shop, setting him on a dusty couch in the back. Dean smoothed his brother's messy hair away from his face while the demon scowled at him. Sam's eyes fluttered open slowly and he smiled weakly at his brother before his expression turned contrite. "Sorry," he croaked at the demon and to Dean's surprise the irritated creature actually smiled.

"Only you would apologize for destroying two Leviathans and almost killing yourself in the process." Sam smiled weakly and relaxed into the couch, eyes drifting closed in sleep. "We need to talk," the demon told Dean then, expression blank. Dean nodded hesitantly, and reluctantly followed the demon away from his little brother's side.

"Sam was here years ago," the demon said once they were in the front of the shop again. "Looking for help. It didn't end well. I don't much look forward to a repeat performance."

"Who are you?" Dean demanded gruffly, trying to ignore the information being given to him.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the demon said with a oily salesman smile, eyes flashing crossroads red. "I am Crowley." Dean nodded his head sharply, unwilling to name himself to the demon, and got a smirk in reply. "So very nice to meet you." Then the demon turned without another word and walked out of the room.

\---

Anna and Kali had begun searching their home, looking for any sign of their mysterious visitor. Anna insisted that it had not been Gadreel, who would have been rendered immobile by her fancy writing on the floor, which left them without any idea of exactly what they were searching for. Both doubted that it were any human predator, he would have been a little put off by the fact that they were translucent and hovering in midair, but a shapeshifter or a ghost were both possibilities.

Kali was stunned to find the basement was actually a maze of tunnels, like some kind of sick and twisted rat maze. The idea struck a bit of information and she froze. "Anna," she said warily. "Do you think we're in Chicago?"

"Maybe," Anna replied with a shrug. "I mean, I can tell you that we're in Illinois but that's about it. Why?" 

"Because I think I know who our overly creepy visitor is. And you're not gonna like him."


	20. All The World's A Stage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week at least there will be two chapters again (I can't promise next week, we'll see how far I get written ahead on my days off). Enjoy!

They had been traveling with their new Leviathan best friend for two days before they saw the news broadcast. They had stopped for lunch, Lily and Jake needed to eat even if their new buddy didn't, and were walking back to the truck when the dark haired Leviathan stopped outside a used appliance store. Several televisions were on in the window and they all showed the picture of a sharply dressed middle aged man with dark hair. "…effects are not yet known," he was saying with a smooth smile. "But Roman Enterprises is working very hard and dedicating a large amount of funds to solving this problem."

"It has started," the Leviathan said grimly.

"What?" Lily asked curiously.

"Their master plan," came the response as Jake came over to them.

"And what exactly is the master plan?" Jake asked gruffly. He had been much more skeptical about their new friend than Lily from the start and it hadn't gotten better.

"The Croatoan virus," the Leviathan replied. "They'll unleash it upon the world in a form of a vaccination and watch the infected humans destroy each other and the non-infected ones." Lily winced and exchanged a worried look with Jake.

"Can they even do that?"

"Roman Enterprises is a major medical producer and funder. No one is going to question what comes out of their doors and anyone that does will end up vanishing mysteriously."

"So how do we stop them?" Jake asked. "Biological terror wasn't exactly my forte during my military experience."

"I can infect the virus, make it destroy itself," the Leviathan said. "But in order to do that I have to actually get inside the lab."

"Okay," Lily said, her voice wavering slightly. "First stop, Roman Enterprises."

\---

Kali had hunted for most of her life, ever since her father had been killed by a shapeshifter when she was eight, but she had never tried to hunt as a ghost. She and Anna were wandering the tunnels beneath their temporary home, looking for any sign of the infamous H.H. Holmes. Neither one of them knew how they were going to get rid of this ghost once they found him but they weren't worrying about that just yet.

The two had decided to split up, knowing they would be able to search more area despite the fact that it made him vulnerable. Kali made her way around another twisted hallway, listening for any type of movement and watching for any movement. She didn't want to unexpectedly run into the first famous serial killer in a dark alley, or shadowy corner in this case, so she was completely alert. A knocking noise down her hall to the left made her freeze and she pivoted smoothly to peer down the hall. She didn't see anything in the shadows so she was forced to make her way down it.

In result, she ran into the demon, or rather through. The demon yelped, startled, and Kali felt her eyes widen. "Hello?" she said warily and the demon smiled sweetly.

"Hi. I'm Jess."

"Kali," she replied hesitantly. It was never a good idea to give your name to a demon but what else could this creature do to her? She was already dead. Kali didn't try to think too hard about the possible answers to that.

"I'm, uh," Jess said awkwardly, running a hand through her long, blonde tresses. "I'm here to rescue you." Kali took a moment to consider the absurdity of the situation and then laughed.

"A demon sent to rescue a lost little wayward soul. Right." The demon in question looked offended by that.

"Sent by God, if you must know," she huffed. "With an obnoxious angel as a partner." Now Kali was fully gaping at the demon. This was like something out of a fairy tale or those fanciful love stories her little sister Parvati had written before a ghost ha torn her apart. When she'd been alive, she'd still had nightmares of her twelve year old sister's body discarded like a broken doll on the floor on an old apartment building.

"Am I dreaming?" Kali managed to ask finally. "And if so when do I get to wake up?"

"You aren't dreaming," Jess said, her face softening. "Now come on. We need to find your friend before something terrible happens."

\---

Meg was on a mission with the devil. The more she thought about that, the more absurd it seemed, as if her life had become one great big divine comedy for the amusement of God. She pondered vaguely on when exactly this had started, decided it was at the point at which she'd agreed to help Sam, and then focused on the task at hand. Currently she and Lucifer were camped out at some café in a small, dusty African town where a new outbreak of malaria had just started. They were searching for Pestilence.

Richard Roman, executed of Roman Enterprises and now known Leviathan, had made a broadcast earlier in the day which had revealed the Leviathan endgame as the Croatoan virus. All demons and angels knew of the virus's existence but only one being in all of Creation, aside from God, was supposed to know how exactly the disease was created; Pestilence. That the disease had suddenly been handed over to the Leviathans could be no coincidence.

"I don't think he's here," Meg told her companion. They had been in this little town for nearly six hours and, while the sun was setting in the scorched looking blue sky, there had been no sign of the horseman.

"That's what I was afraid of," Lucifer admitted. "He would have known he would be hunted as soon as Roman unveiled the disease so he'll be running." Meg sighed and pulled out her phone, a new and expensive piece of equipment that she had modified to hook her into Hell's wifi system, and began searching for disease outbreaks.

"Five hospitalized for Swine Flu in Missouri," she tried.

"Too close to our current base," Lucifer replied immediately. "Pestilence is far from stupid, most of the time, so he'll probably avoid much, if not all, of North America." Meg huffed in irritation and scrolled through health headlines until her attention fell on something that made her brighten up.

"Surprise outbreak of the Ebola virus in North Korea," she said cheerfully.

"Dictatorship here we come," Lucifer responded, offering her his hand. Meg shoved her phone away and took it. It was time to get to the bottom of this mess, no matter how they had to get the answer out of Pestilence once they found him.

\---

Kali would have liked to say that her story on earth ended with them finding Anna and Jess's angel companion and then moving on with the rest of their lives, or afterlives as the case may be. Instead, she and Jess discovered H.H. Holmes. Afterwards Kali would blame the entire situation on Jess being undeniably blonde but for the time being the fact remained that both girls were utterly and completely stuck. And it was all that angel Gadreel's fault. 


	21. Plotting

Sam woke up on what had once been Aziraphale's couch. The fussy angel would have been, doubtlessly, very upset about the entire situation. The couch was dusty, there was Leviathan goo staining it now, and Sam had been possibly dying. Crowley was an entirely different type, unless you consulted his plants and then there was a whole strict story behind that as well. "You're up." The demon's voice was gruff and mostly uninterested but Sam had learned long ago to see the worry behind the demon's dark eyes.

"Yeah," he croaked out and gratefully accepted the mug of tea the demon handed him. "Why am I here?"

"Because you're a bloody idiot, that's why," Crowley snapped. "Destroy two Leviathans like that. How stupid can you get?"

"It was a reaction," Sam protested and the demon snorted.

"Reaction, _right_. I know who trained you in the arts of war fledgling. Don't even try to tell me they didn't train the blind panic reaction out of you."

"They tried," Sam retorted stubbornly. "That doesn't necessarily mean that they succeeded." Crowley chuckled at that and shook his head.

"Fair enough. Now get up before your brother has a conniption and decides to skewer me thinking I've killed you."

"I'm sure that would be very inconvenient considering how busy your shop has been," Sam drawled and didn't manage to duck the smack aimed at the back of his head fast enough.

"Yes, terribly inconvenient," Crowley drawled back, already heading for the back room. "Now move. We don't have all day."

\---

Pestilence was not in North Korea. He _had been_ in North Korea but he was already gone by the time they left the town. The result was an irritated Lucifer, and frustrated Meg, and another search for possible disease outbreaks. That had brought them to India and, now, to Greece. They were walking down the streets, Meg skimming headlines on her phone because she already knew this was going to be a bust, when they found him.

" _Meg_ ," Lucifer hissed and her head snapped up. She locked eyes with the horseman and they both froze. It was a stupid move. Meg had hunted beings for a long time so she should have known better but she found herself simply shocked by him being there. Lucifer was not.

The archangel was already crossing the busy courtyard when Pestilence bolted. Meg was after him like a shot, actually tearing by the archangel. They sprinted through streets until Lucifer literally stepped out of thin air to stop the horseman in his tracks. "Hello Pestilence," the devil said with a oily smile. "We need to talk to you."

\---

They reached Roman Enterprises in California and Lily found herself looking at the stereotypical palm trees as they drove by them. She found herself pondering what she was about to do. They had decided, collectively, that they needed someone inside of someone inside Roman Enterprises if they were going to take the Leviathans down. Lily had volunteered for the job. Now she was dressed in a black skirt, crisp white button up blouse, and modestly high heels. She was about to audition for the job of personal secretary to Richard Roman himself, their Leviathan had whispered that he had probably eaten the original one.

She stepped inside the pristine office and forced herself not to stare up, up, up at the high ceiling with its clean skylights. Instead she made her way across the tile floor to the receptionist's desk. "Ashley Ford to interview with Mr. Roman," she told the secretary who looked at her over her glasses and huffed.

"Fifth floor Miss Ford," she said in a nasally voice and then looked back at the thick stack of papers in front of her. Lily nodded once in thanks and headed for the elevator. Her hands were sweating. She wiped them carefully on her skirt, hoping they didn't leave marks, and firmed her hold on the filed folder filled with her fabricated qualifications. Their Leviathan had reassured them that Roman wouldn't really care about qualifications. He just wanted someone pretty to do the job.

The elevator dinged when it reached the fifth floor and Lily stepped out only to see a military man looking directly at her. "State your name and purpose," he barked and she flinched slightly in surprise.

"Ashley Ford to interview with Mr. Roman," she said in just as crisp a tone as she had used with the secretary downstairs. The man nodded.

"Wait here," the man ordered and stepped inside the office he was standing outside. Lily did as she was told. A moment later he came back out and managed a smile for her. "Go right on in."

"Thank you," she told him and stepped by him into an office.

It was a nice office with a large, curved oak desk and a comfortable looking swivel chair. Sitting in the chair was the form of Richard Roman. He stood the instant he saw her, beaming and coming around the desk to shake her hand. "Miss Ford, right?" he said. "Pleasure to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you too Mr. Roman," Lily replied politely, shaking his hand firmly.

"Call me Dick, please," the Leviathan said smoothly and Lily had to choke down laughter. "Please take a seat Miss Ford and we'll being." He was smiling at her, a shark's smile trying to be innocent. Lily didn't know it at the time but that smile would be the last thing she would see.

\---

"I hate being dead," Kali announced to the world. Trapped in her circle of symbols, Jess giggled weakly. The blonde's face was a mask of blood and her eyes were dazed but still slightly alert. "If I wasn't dead I could do something about this."

"If you weren't dead you would be in more danger than you are now," the demon informed her. "There are things worse than demons that have been loosed on the world and hunters like what you were will only end up dead." Kali snorted at that but Jess's expression was grim.

"They eat people Kali. They even eat each other at times." Kali gagged when that sunk in, looking to Jess for confirmation, but the demon was already drifting, dazed from the damage she had sustained. That was when the dead hunter really began to worry. She had never seen anything do more than slow a demon down but the vile H.H. Holmes had done more than that. He had all but destroyed her. Kali did the only thing then that she could think of. " _Help!_ " she screamed. " _Somebody help!_ "

"No help is coming little girl," Holmes' voice sneered.

"Oh I wouldn't say that," a voice snarked. A thin man with white-blonde hair stepped into view, smirking. A silver sword gleamed at his side. Red headed Anna was flickering behind her and she smiled at Kali brightly. Holmes vanished with a snarl, lunging toward the figure when the flickered into view.

The man didn't even bother lifting the sword. Instead he raised his freed hand and, in a blast of gleaming white and silver light, Holmes was gone. "Show off," Anna muttered, shaking her head. Then she turned and grinned at Kali. "Ready to get out of here?"

\---

Pestilence was edgy as they walked along the coastline with him trapped between them. "We just have a simple question for you," Lucifer said smoothly. "And all we ask for is a truthful answer. Did you tell the Leviathans how to manufacture the Croatoan virus?"

"Whether or not I did is none of your business," Pestilence snapped defensively.

"That's not the answer we're looking for," Meg sang mockingly. Pestilence glared at her and she ran a finger down the sheath of the knife at her belt. She was good at being menacing after all these years and even though her little blade wouldn't damage the horseman he gulped.

"Fine," he spilled after a few minutes of tense silence. "I may have let it spill once a century ago how to make it but none of this is my fault."

"Oh it is," Lucifer replied grimly. "But just a small part. That's why I'm going to make your death as painless as possible." Pestilence had only a moment to look stunned before Lucifer's sword slammed through his stomach leaving him gaping until he dissolved into a puddle of sludge. Meg hadn't known that anything could kill a horseman so she could only stare at where Pestilence had been standing.

"Death won't be too happy about having to replace him," Lucifer said calmly. "But we can't have a horseman handing out the secret to the Croatoan virus like it's a party favor."

"You can explain that to Death," Meg managed to choke out at last. Lucifer just grinned.

\---

"I'm fine," Sam reassured his brother for what felt like the hundredth time that day. "I recharged faster this time than I did last time so I think it's just a matter of practice."

"Practice I don't want you to have," Dean shot back. "This is dangerous."

"It might be our only chance to stop the Leviathans from whatever plot they have to destroy the world."

"Croatoan," Crowley stuck in and they both stared at him. "It has been all over the news for the past nine hours. Roman Enterprises is secretly being run by Leviathans and they are going to unleash the Croatoan virus on to the world in the guise of a vaccine."

"See," Sam snapped. "This might be our only chance to stop them. You know what will happen if the virus is released Dean. We have to do this."

"I don't want to lose you again," Dean said heavily. "And if we do this it might kill you."

"And if we don't billions of people will be utterly destroyed. Their souls won't even exist anymore once the virus is done with them. Dean, _please_ ," Sam begged. He could see the moment his brother relented. Dean's shoulders slumped and he looked, for a moment, as if the weight of the world had been dropped on his shoulders.

"Fine," he said at last. "But if you die, you're the one explaining to Meg that it was your stupid idea." It was as much permission as he was likely to get. Sam nodded and then turned to Crowley.

"You're the one who usually comes up with stuff like this so where do we start?"


	22. The Hazards of New Jobs

Lily found herself settled at a small desk right outside Richard Roman's office. It had a brand new computer, a comfortable chair, and several drawers filled with unopened office supplies. She didn't have a nameplate, at least not yet, and didn't care. What she did care about was the man who seemed to be Roman's personal guard, Andrew Ferris. He stood outside Roman's office and while his eyes rarely left the elevator door, she was constantly overwhelmed by the feeling that she was being watched.

She missed Jake. It was work not to stare at the clock as she answered phone calls, booked appointments, and penciled in press conferences. Her best friend made her feel safe and being without him now made her feel like a small child without their security blanket. She made it through the day without having a nervous breakdown and actually managed to give Ferris and smile and a wave before making her exit. The ride down in the elevator made her tense, she was seriously worried that someone would try to stop her and accuse her of being a spy, but she made it out of the office and into the late afternoon sunshine without any problems. The fussy secretary from the day before even mumbled a good-bye to her as she walked out the front door.

Jake and their Leviathan were waiting for her at a snazzy little internet café and they both smiled when she approached. Their Leviathan appeared tense and her smile was strained but Jake's was genuine. "How'd it go?" he asked her.

"Aside from the almost unbearable tension?" Lily asked with an almost hysterical giggle. "Boring as all get out. I feel like I'm being watched all the time so I haven't bothered trying to find where they're manufacturing the Croatoan virus yet."

"It's okay," Jake said as their waitress approached them. "Take your time. We don't want anyone to get hurt."

"What can I get for you three?" the young woman asked cheerfully.

"I'll have a caramel latte," Lily requested before tapping the Leviathan's hand. "What about you Faith?" The name just slipped out. She'd been thinking of the Leviathan as Faith, watching so many episodes of _Buffy_ as a teenager had obviously seared the characters into her brain, and so it wasn't a huge shock to her that it came out. It did startle the Leviathan.

"Uh," she stuttered. "I'll, uh, I'll have a cup of lemon tea." The waitress nodded and then turned to Jake.

"Coffee for me," he requested. "Black." The waitress bustled off and the Leviathan turned to stare at Lily.

"Did you just name me?"

"Umm," Lily stuttered, embarrassed. "Yes. I guess so."

"Thank you," the newly christened Faith said, looking stunned and honored. Jake looked between the two of them and snorted.

"You two are ridiculous," he said with an amused grin.

"Then what does that make you?" Lily asked, drawing a laugh out of Faith, and they all relaxed. None of them were aware they were being watched.

\---

The plan they came up with, in the end, was ridiculously simple. The Leviathans had, by this point, probably figured out that someone or something had discovered how to destroy them. All Sam had to do was step up to the plate and claim his responsibility for what he had done. The Leviathans would come to them and they would be destroyed. Dean hated the very idea of the plan, sure it would kill his brother, but Sam knew it would be worth the cost. His own life wasn't worth the death of billions. Now their only problem was getting a message to the creatures.

Neither Sam nor Dean were exactly computer experts. Dean had spent most of his life in Heaven, a choice he was beginning to regret now because it had made him sheltered and closed minded, and Sam had spent most of his time of earth running for his life or hiding from everyone. Neither set of activities were conductive to learning how to use computers. Crowley did know how to work a computer but didn't want himself linked at all to this entire mess. That left them at a dead end, because they had already decided the United States Postal System, despite being an amazing creation, took too long for their situation and, once again, Crowley didn't really want anything to do with this mess.

Sam spent four frustrating hours trying to come up with a solution. That was when Dean said, sort of off-handed, "Does one of your demon friends know how to run a computer well enough for this?" Sam felt like smacking his head against the nearest wall then because how could he have been so stupid. He remembered first meeting Lily, finding her in her high school's computer lab and seeing the taint in her blood and having to stop and talk to her because she just looked so lonely. He had told her that the blood wasn't the sum of her, that she was better than it. He wasn't sure she'd believed him but she'd let him stick around a few days anyway and he'd learned that she was amazing with computers. It was as if they spoke a different language that only Lily could hear and she spoke back.  
He scrambled for his phone, leaving Dean asking "What?" behind him, and dialed.

It range five times before Lily picked up, leaving Sam pacing nervously until he heard her voice saying, "Hello?"

"Hey Lily," he replied, unable to hide the relief in his voice that came with the knowledge that she could answer her phone. "Do you have a moment?"

"Sure." Lily sounded curious, like she always had whenever he'd been able to check up on her. He'd done his best to fulfil her curiosity, to make her feel valued like he hadn't at the time, and he could only hope he had succeeded.

"I need your help," Sam told her and explained their plan. For a moment there was nothing but silence. Then Lily giggled.

"I know this is a serious matter, really I do," she told him. "But you aren't going to believe what's going on right now." Lily was right. He didn't.

\---

Kali had thought she would be happy to know she was returning to Heaven. All those good memories, untouched by years and fading, but she wasn't. Going to Heaven meant losing her new friendship with Anna, because Anna was going to vanish from existence again. That was why Kali was standing stubbornly in front of the red head's spirit with her arm crossed across her chest, shaking her head. "No way," she said firmly. "I'm not going and letting Anna dissolve into a million particles in the wind. She's a good person. She doesn't deserve that." Jess looked sympathetic to their plight. Balthazar did too, to be honest, but he also looked kind of like a cornered animal that wasn't sure what to do.

"It's okay Kali," Anna said gently, reaching out a hand to rest it against the other girl's shoulder. "It doesn't hurt."

"That's beside the point," Kali snapped, turning anguished and frustrated eyes on Anna. "You deserve Heaven."

"Anna doesn't have a Heaven," Balthazar said bluntly and Kali glared at him. "Look, I don't like this any better than you princess but I can't do anything else."

"Right," Kali snorted and he looked irritated.

"She's my sister," Balhazar snarled. "I'd tear down the moon if I thought that it would get her into Heaven, okay?"

"I, uh, have a solution for that," a mousy looking man said, appearing out of nowhere. "No tearing down of the moon necessary, okay?"

"Who the hell are you?" Kali snapped and was treated to three very scandalized looks.

"Kali," Anna said at last, sounding tentative. "Kali that's God."

\---

"So explain to me again how Lily and Jake managed to befriend a Leviathan," Dean said, running a hand through his hair. Crowley looked equally frustrated and confused by the entire situation, as if life had just thrown them a curveball and it had smacked them square in the stomach.

"I'm not exactly sure," Sam admitted. "Lily was a little vague on the details but she and Jake didn't managed to come up with a plan that might assist with the whole me not dying thing."

"Okay," Dean said, looking vaguely hopeful, as if he couldn't help himself. "What is it?"

\---

"Oh," Kali said as the revelation sunk in. "Sorry."

"No problem," God replied with a shrug. "Now, as I said, I have a solution that involves Anna not vanishing into oblivion but I need Kali's permission to carry it out."

"What is it?" Kali asked immediately, feeling hopeful. All her life she had been told that God could do anything and now she might actually she it with her own eyes.

"Some people share a Heaven," God said, speaking as if he was discussing the news instead of the afterlife. "It would be simple enough to expand Kali's Heaven to allow Anna to exist there as well."

"You mean Anna would share my Heaven?" Kali asked feeling hopeful.

"I can't let you do this for me," Anna protested and Kali turned to her friend with a stubborn glare, hands on her hips.

"Can't let me do what? Share Heaven with my newest friend? _Please_ ," Kali snorted. She turned to God with a grin. "Do it."

"I thought you might say that," God replied with a grin. Then he snapped his fingers and Kali was back at her Thanksgiving with her family. And this time Anna was with her.

\---

Anna and Kali vanished together in a glimmer of gold light, leaving Jess and Balthazar alone with God. "Are you ready to go to Heaven?" God asked her with a gentle smile. Jess had thought she would be ready when it came time to go to Heaven, after all that was more than she had ever expected since she had become a demon, but now she wasn't so sure.

"Umm," she said and shuffled awkwardly where she stood.

"What is it dear?" God asked and the words blurted out of her mouth as if on their own accord.

"I'm not sure I want to go."

"Why not?" she was asked but it didn't sound like He was confused. Rather it sounded as if He understood but wanted her to state the reason anyway. She did, as best as she could.

"If I go to Heaven I'll be leaving all my friends behind," she said. "Sure, most of them will be able to visit me in Heaven, but they all will have their own lives and duties. I'll be something that just fades away in time for them and I don't want that. I want to be there so they have someone to confide in, someone they can talk to about things they don't feel like they can tell anyone else. I want to be there for them."

"I thought you would say something of the sort," God replied. "Which is why I have a solution in mind. How would you like to become an angel?"


	23. Beginning of the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I actually have this story completely finished on my computer now (which is sort of sad because that means besides timestamps and a couple side stories my journey with these particular incarnations of these characters is at an end) so I can safely tell you there will only be another chapter and an epilogue after this one. Enjoy!

"An angel?" Jess asked, eyes wide. "Are you being serious?"

"Of course," God replied, eyes sparkling. "I have noticed that I have a lack of noticeably loyal, mature angels and have decided to rectify that. You will make a wonderful addition to the Heavenly Host Jessica."

"I would love to be an angel," Jess admitted honestly and God smiled at her.

"Then it will be done."

\---

Lily had requested two days to coordinate their efforts before they saved the world. She spent that time being Dick's secretary, and she had to try not to laugh every time she said his name. She did her best to be trustworthy and responsible. She smiled and waved to Andrew Ferris every time she left the office. And she waited. The plan they had set up had three separate parts and all the parts had to work together in order for them to be successful.

The first part belonged to Lily herself. She was to pass on Sam's email to the Leviathan leader which should draw them all away to deal with the threat Sam posed. Then on to the second part. Sam, Crowley, and Dean needed to keep the Leviathan's occupied while Lily discovered the location of the lab where they were manufacturing the Croatoan virus. Then she would send the location of Faith and Jake. Those two had the last piece of the puzzle, Faith's ability to destroy the virus. With the virus destroyed the world would be safe enough that Sam could take his time destroy the Leviathans or returning them to Purgatory.

The plan sounded reasonable enough but Lily was still worried. There were some many little details and if one went wrong they would all be dead. The last thing Lily wanted to be was dead, even if Death was a nice sort of guy. Now she sat in the office, waiting for the email to come through in her inbox. She was using all the tricks she knew to keep herself calm and relaxed so she didn't set off some kind of warning for the Leviathans. She wasn't sure how well it was working. Her inbox dinged just as Andrew Ferris walked up and tapped her shoulder. "Mr. Roman would like to see you." With a heavy heart Lily turned and followed him into the office, leaving the email that could save the world unopened.

\---

Faith was gnawing so hard on her lower lip that black blood was oozing from it in a small stream. The smell of it made Jake feel sick to his stomach. "Will you stop that?" he snapped at her and she looked contrite.

"I'm sorry. I'm just nervous. Lily's the first person since Leonore that actually liked me and I don't wish harm upon her."

"Me neither," Jake found himself agreeing fervently with the Leviathan and she managed a weak smile. Jake hadn't thought he'd ever find anything to agree on with their new companion. Unlike Lily, Jake wasn't willing to trust a Leviathan just because she _said_ she was on their side. He'd been in the army for four years and learned that you never trusted the enemy, no matter how friendly they looked. But he could agree with her about being worried about Lily. And he could manage not to kill her, for Lily's sake.

\---

Lily was battered, bloody, and bruised. She was not, however, talking. Instead she stared stubbornly at the wall and thought happy thoughts. She thought of Faith's delight at having a name, at Jake's grin when he said something he thought was particularly clever, at the warmth that she felt when she was finally able to hug someone for the first time without having them fall dead at her feet. The Leviathan's snarled and snapped at her but she lived in her own little world. She died in it two, her last sight the loathsome smile on Dick Roman's face.

She woke up, and that alone was a shock. Death was standing front of her looking as stately as usual with his dark hair combed neatly back and a sad smile. That was when she realized she was floating above her body. "Huh," she said in a curiously disinterested tone. "I didn't think this was possible."

"It isn't normally," Death informed her. "But I made an exception for you."

"Why?"

"Because you are a kind, considerate young woman," Death replied. "And you do not deserve oblivion. Also there seems to be a position opened. You see, Lucifer found it appropriate to destroy Pestilence and someone needs to take his place."

"I would be honored," Lily replied without hesitation. Then she took Death's hand and together they walked out of the main office of Roman Enterprises, leaving her body behind. Meanwhile Richard Roman was finding an incriminating email on his secretary's computer. One that would bring his whole plan crashing down about his ears.

\---

Once Sam sent the email he couldn't remain calm. He paced the hotel room he and Dean were currently sharing, the room they'd moved into twelve hours ago. Crowley was back at the bookstore, carefully warded and under orders to call if the Leviathans came after him. Now all the had to do was wait and hope everything fell into place. The knocking started three hours later. Sam shot up from where he had finally sat down and Dean's sword was instantly in hand. Sam made his way to the door and they found a petite brunette woman standing outside the door. The sour smell of Leviathan instantly invaded Sam's nostrils and he stared with barely contained hatred at her.

"Hello fledgling," she cooed at Sam. "I'm here to deliver a message to you."

"Speak," Sam barked, using a tone of voice he had only ever heard Michael use on particularly disobedient soldiers.

"I just want to tell you that we know where you and your friends are hiding and we know what you can do. We're survivalists if nothing else so we're going after the innocents." Sam felt as if he'd suddenly turned to ice. He swayed slightly and Dean pressed a steadying hand against his back.

"You spineless cowards," Sam heard his older brother say as if from far away. The whole world seemed to have zoomed out then and Sam, though he might not know what he was saying or how he came to have the power, suddenly knew how to find it. His hand shot out and he spoke, his voice a snarl of fury and pain, and the brunette dissolved into dust. 

"We're going to save them," Sam growled at his brother. "Now." Then he flew before Dean even had time to react.

\---

"Something's wrong," Faith hissed from Jake's side as they watched the last of the Leviathans leave Roman Enterprises. "Lily should have sent us the information by now."

"Shut up," Jake hissed back, trying to ignore the panic boiling in his stomach.

"We should already be on our way by now," Faith continued.

"I said _shut up_!" Jake snarled and Faith glared at him.

"I don't know what you're doing but I'm going in," Faith hissed at him. "And if you are any friend to Lily you will too." Then she stormed across the road and into Roman Enterprises. Jake hesitated a moment longer, common sense and military training fighting against the knowledge that Faith was right and something really had gone very wrong. It was that knowledge the pushed him to follow Faith inside and five minutes later it was he who found the body.


	24. Something Bad

" _Stand on the bar, stomp your feet, start clapping, got a real good feeling something bad is gonna happen_ ," Jo crooned along with Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood. What she didn't realize was that her words were a prediction to what was coming. She did know the instant Lisa sprinted into the kitchen, eyes wild.

"We have a problem," she panted out, trembling from excess adrenalin.

"What is it?" Jo asked, fingers twitching for the nearest weapon.

"Leviathans," Lisa replied, trembling slightly. "They're everywhere."

\---

"You sure you know what to do with those wings?" Balthazar mocked for what felt like the hundredth time since Jess's transformation. Jess growled at him, whirling around and smacking him in the face with one of her wings. He sputtered and she couldn't help the giggle that came out of her mouth at the disgruntled look on his face. "You're thinking about them too much," he chided once he was out of range of her dark grey wings.

"They're _right there_ ," Jess snapped at him with a roll of her eyes. "How can I not think about them?" Balthazar threw his hands in the air, just as frustrated as she was.

"I don't know how else to explain it," he growled. "It's natural for me."

"Well _duh_ ," Jess muttered. "You were kind of born this way. Born? Made? Whatever." Balthazar snorted and Jess sighed, shoulder's drooping. "I'm not sure I can do this."

"Sure you can," Balthazar replied, stepping casually closer. "You just have to think about something more mind consuming than those wings."

"Like this?" Jess asked with a wicked smile. Then she leaned forward and kissed him.

\---

Finding Lily's body was devastating for both of them. Jake quickly hid his emotions behind a mask of concentration but Faith let out a choked sob, cradling Lily's still form close. "I should have never let her do this," Faith mumbled, tears dripping down her cheeks. "I should have never, ever, ever,"

"Faith shut up," Jake growled, looking through Lily's browser history.

"Ever, let somebody else go up against my siblings. I should have known better," Faith continued to babble.

"Faith _shut up_ ," Jake snapped, fighting back his own tears. "Shut up and listen to me! Did you trust Lily?"

"-should have never," Faith continued on.

"Did you trust Lily?" Jake asked again, sharply.

"Y-yes," Faith stammered out.

"Then you had to let her go, had to let her act on her own because if not you didn't really trust her. Do you understand me?" Faith nodded, her face streaked with tears and snot, and for the first time since this had begun Jake found himself feeling sympathy for a Leviathan. "Lily found us the location of the storehouse," Jake continued. "Let's honor her memory and finish this." Faith nodded, wiping her face clean and standing.

"Let's do this."

\---

Lisa's hand holding the gun trembled. She didn't feel ready for this. Sure, Jo had been a great teacher but Lisa wasn't ready to kill anyone even if it was a slime oozing monster from God only knew where. "It'll be okay," Jo said from her left but the other girl's voice wasn't entirely steady.

"You sure?" Lisa asked, voice wavering terribly.

"Yeah girls," Ellen spoke up from the doorway, voice calm and warm. "Everything is going to be just fine." And even thought Lisa knew it was just empty words, knew there was no way they were all going to survive this, it made her feel just a bit better anyway. She firmed her grip on the gun and turned her attention to the window. 

"Ready Jo? Lisa?" she heard Ellen asked.

"Ready," the girls replied. Then together the three of them turned and walked out of Bobby Singer's kitchen, and his home, for what might be the last time in their lives. Sixty seconds later the world as they knew it dissolved into chaos.

\---

Sam was furious. Dean was sure he'd never seen his little brother quite this angry before. Leviathans dissolved as he waded through them and Dean could only follow in Sam's wake. The Leviathans may have been ancient and clever but they had made an enormous mistake when they had threatened the youngest archangel's family. Sam had seen his family be ripped away from his grasp too many times to let it be torn from him now.

Somehow Dean found himself separated from his brother, fighting for his life with the others. He was a good fighter, he'd had to be after centuries, but there were simply too many of the Leviathan and they were too strong. Long ago, when they were transcribing the Bible, someone had written demons into pigs, which was true, but had called them Legion, which was not. The Legion had only ever been Leviathan and if the demons had truly said what was transcribed, Dean had been elsewhere at the time so he did not know for sure, then the demons had just been screwing with humanity.

One of the Legion go the jump on him only to have a bullet put through its neck. It choked and gaped, dumbfounded, as Lisa Braeden whirled to take aim at another approaching monster. Her expression was tight with concentration as Jo rammed Raphael's blade home through the monster Lisa had shot, and wasn't that a surprise. Angel's didn't just _let_ someone borrow their blade. Especially not archangels.

"You looked like you needed a little help there," Lisa said with a shy smile, offering Dean her hand.

"Thanks," he told her, allowing her to help him up and then kissing her hand lightly. 

She blushed prettily at that until Jo bellowed at her, "Lis, get your ass moving. We don't have all day here." Then she grinned and hurried after her blonde companion. Dean watched her go, smiling until Alastair snapped at him to get moving before he was killed. Then he dove into the fray once more.

\---

Faith and Jake moved together through the Leviathan's stronghold, ready for anything that might jump out at them. So far they'd only seen frightened humans but neither one trusted the Leviathans to leave the virus unguarded. Faith had insisted that she'd not sensed any of her kind around but when she suddenly veered off their chosen path, the only Lily had outlined for them on the computer, he followed her with a hand on his gun. Instead of a Leviathan they discovered a girl with long, dark hair tied to a chair. Her wrists were raw and weeping but her eyes were bright as they latched onto the two newcomers.

"Come to have a laugh," she sneered and Faith flinched slightly. Jake, on the other hand, grinned.

"Are you Madison?"

"Who wants to know?" she demanded sharply.

"Jake Talley. I'm a friend of Sam's."

"Oh," she said, her face softening considerably. "In that case I am Madison." Faith hurried to untie the werewolf woman and Madison asked, "What are the two of you doing here?"

"We're here to stop the Leviathans," Jake explained. "They have the Croatoan virus and if we destroy it we can destroy them."

"Ok," Madison said, her eyes narrowing with determination. "How can I help?"

\---

Sam ached. It felt as if every bone in his body was simultaneously melting and burning inside him, tearing him apart. Still he waded on, destroy the monsters that had threatened his family even as his body failed. He wavered where he stood, feeling less and less of the monsters within minutes. His vision blurred and he swayed violently. His last sight was Raphael's wings wrapping around him and the concerned eyes of his friends before he tumbled to the ground. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you wondering, don't worry, Gadreel will be addressed in the last chapter. He was originally in this chapter but I felt that he didn't really fit in with the rest of what was going on so I moved him.


	25. Epilogue

Gadreel stood at the gates of Heaven with his head held high. At this very moment the Leviathans were being slaughtered, as the formerly imprisoned angel had expected them to be. In his original plan, Gadreel had aimed to draw the most power angels down from Heaven and, at the right time, lure them in with the bait of two souls, one human and one undeniably a former angel, to lock them and the Leviathans away in Purgatory for good. That had not come to pass.

Instead, the Leviathans had drawn Heaven's most fearsome weapon, the archangels, down all by themselves. The manufacturing of the Croatoan virus was a particularly genius step and while it had burned Gadreel's initial plan to the ground it had not completely ruined his idea of revenge. Now, with Heaven's deadliest fighting against the Leviathan plague that was meant to the end of the world, he aimed to return to Heaven and slam the gates shut in their faces. Then they would truly know the pain of being locked into a Cage they did not choose.

So maybe he had tempted the humans into doing exactly what his father didn't want them two. All the blame should lie on those foolish, simple minded apes for taking the fruit in the first place. Instead Gadreel had been punished while the apes remained God's chosen children. Now he aimed to set that wrong right and to do so he needed control of Heaven. Unfortunately for him, he had not realized that his father had returned him.

He stepped through the gates, mind set on revenge and all the delight it would bring him, when he found himself face to face with Heaven's oldest angel. Michael was waiting for him, sword in hand and expression grim. "Gadreel," Heaven's fiercest warrior intoned in a voice that would have shaken the pillars of any earth built dwelling. "I offer you one final chance. Turn your back on revenge, return to the fold, and all will be forgiven." Gadreel snarled, too furious for words at the statement. Returning would mean bowing to the apes who had cost him everything and to his older siblings who had locked him away for what he saw as a just deed. It would go against everything Gadreel believed and he would not do it. He lunged forward and met his end on an archangel's blade.

_Two days later…_

Sam woke up with a mouth that felt like sandpaper. Meg was leaning over him, a worried frown solidifying into a relieved smile. "You silly idiot," she said fondly. "What did you think you were doing?" Then she leaned over and kissed him. For a moment he was stunned. By the time he finally thought about kissing back she was already pulling away. "I thought I'd lost you," she said in a small voice and Sam was suddenly stunned by her dark curls and young looks. Meg was nephilim, was everything she'd been before but still undeniably Meg.

"You can't kill me," he teased in a raspy voice and she giggled, eyes filling with tears. That was when he pulled her down to kiss her. They got maybe sixty seconds of peace before Jess bounced in, flushed awkwardly and bounced out. Sam blinked after her, stunned. "Did she-" he began rasping, coughed, and then gratefully swallowed when Meg lifted a cup of water to his lips. "Thank you. Did Jess have wings?"

"Yes," Meg said with a kind of hopeless little grin. "I have a lot to fill you in about."

"Start from the beginning," he said and then laughed as Meg wrinkled her nose at him. "Okay, okay. Start with what's easiest."

"Your brother is following Jo Harvelle around like sort of a lost puppy and Dean is flirting with Lisa," Meg blurted out.

"Umm," Sam said hopelessly. "Which brother?"

"Raphael," Meg sighed, exasperated. "Your whole family is hopeless Sammy."

"I know," he admitted and she grinned wryly at him. "Okay, that was the good news. Ready for the bad?" Sam nodded, even though he wasn't really, and Meg's face turned grim. "Not everyone made it out of this mess alive." Sam nodded, braced for whatever blow was to come. "Lily is dead, sort of. You see, Lucifer and I happened to end up killing Pestilence so there was a position open and Death is rather fond of her so she's dead but not." Sam waited for more but Meg didn't continue.

"That's it?"

"That's not all the news, no."

"You know what I mean Meg."

"Yes," she said with a slim, pleased smile. "That's all the deaths on our side. The majority of the Leviathan horde is icky black sludge that washed away with last night's rain and the rest are mostly cowering in a corner waiting for death. The only exception is the one who came in with Jake and Madison. They both vouch for her, Faith is what they're calling her. They say she helped destroy the batch of Croatoan virus that the Leviathans manufactured. Also, Gadreel attempted to attack Heaven after his failed attempt to hold Anna and Kali hostage to ensure our co-operation, and was destroyed completely by Michael." 

Sam absorbed that silently, unsure how to feel. It was as if all their problems had come to a sudden, simple end. It was everything he had hoped for but hadn't expected to happen. "Anything else?" he asked at last.

"Nothing that I can think of," Meg replied with a shrug. "Everyone is vacating Bobby's house so his life is about to go back to normal. Oh, and Madison and her fiancé are getting married in May. We all have standing invitations to the ceremony."

"We'll have to be sure to attend," Sam said and Meg smiled at him, leaning down to gently kiss his forehead. 

"I'll let your worried brother get his butt in here now before he wears a hole in the carpet," she told him, standing. "But I'll be back in a bit to make sure you're resting to regain your full strength instead of doing something stupid. Understand?"

"I understand," he replied with a fond grin. Meg grinned back and exited. Moments later Dean was rushing into the room as if he expected to see Sam's dead body lying on the bed.

"Sammy." Dean's voice was a whisper of pure relief as he crossed the room with a flicker of wings to squeeze his brother's shoulders.

"Hey Dean," he replied with a tired grin. Suddenly Dean was shaking him almost violently, expression furious.

"Don't you ever do anything like that again, you understand me?"

"I understand," Sam managed to get out once his brother stopped shaking him. Dean nodded and settled silently on the edge of the bed as if he had used up all his energy with that outburst. "I wouldn't have done it if there had been any other way," Sam said softly at last.

"I know," Dean replied and gave Sam a wry grin. All was forgiven. Knowing that the enemy was dead and his family was still going to be there later allowed Sam to close his eyes and drift back to sleep. And for the first time since Lucifer had been locked away in the Cage, Heaven was at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now comes the end of another journey...
> 
> Luckily, this won't be the last time you'll see these characters because I have at least one wedding to write and several bits of back story that I want to share along with a couple other random pieces so, although the main part of this series is over, there will still be posts happening.
> 
> Furthermore this means I will be able to start a new project on here. I debated a while on what I was going to post because I have a lot of things plotted out and didn't know what I wanted to post first but I finally came up with some kind of idea of how I want to do this. The next series I'm going to focus on will be called Ashes to Dust (there will be once a week posts starting Saturday until I get a little further ahead on this) and it goes all the way back to the beginning dealing with the idea that Adam is the youngest Winchester, Dean is the oldest, and Sam is just trying to figure out where he fits in and where his strange gifts come from.
> 
> There will be another story started at the end of August. This one is titled Revolutions and deals with Sam being the Boy King of Hell (although it isn't really dark, more fairy tale-ish than anything else I guess) and will have once a month updates once I get it going because the chapters are monsters and take forever to write.
> 
> Thanks for coming with me on this journey and thank you for all the encouragement and advice I received,  
> Ellie


End file.
